"I was just thinking, you might follow me," Venti said.
Since they had followed, Lumine was indeed very concerned about one thing: what Dvalin had said to him earlier—"Barbatos."
And Barbatos was one of the Seven Archons she was looking for.
Although she had just heard his introduction, he was merely a bard named Venti.
Then, Lumine spoke up from the side: "We want to know more about the Anemo Archon."
"Anemo Archon Barbatos? That guy has already disappeared from Mondstadt. The Geo Archon of neighboring Liyue and the Electro Archon of Inazuma are still around, but Mondstadters haven't seen their God for a long time," Venti continued to feign ignorance.
He didn't know that just before this...
The voice that gave Lumine Anemo power in the sky was him, which could explain why his power was a bit stronger. But then Dvalin sold him out by calling him Barbatos, which was hard to defend.
"Why are you asking about the Anemo Archon? Is it because of Dvalin?" Venti asked, crossing his arms and making a guess.
"It has something to do with Dvalin," Paimon said from the side.
Then Paimon began to recount the events that had transpired earlier.
"Oh, did that happen? I didn't notice. Perhaps Dvalin just said it casually," Venti tried to cover up even at this stage.
Lumine and Paimon were both speechless. The first God they met, how could he be like this?
"Do something serious, Barbatos," Alex couldn't help but say at this moment.
Venti, knowing he was exposed, laughed awkwardly: "Ehe~"
"What does 'Ehe' mean?!" Paimon also got anxious at this point. Is this Anemo Archon really so unreliable?
Alright, alright, the classic line was used here.
Unfortunately, it wasn't in ancient Inazuman, so it lacked that special flavor, making it seem like a very ordinary conversation.
Afterward, Paimon and Venti chatted, recalling the Stormterror's past that Lisa had told them when they cleaned the abandoned temple together.
"Is that so? Is that how the scholar named Lisa sees it?" Venti pondered, placing his hand on his chin.
They also talked about the scene when they first met, hearing the Anemo Archon deceive them, saying he was also infected by the poisoned blood and staying there to slowly remove the curse.
(⊙_⊙) Lumine couldn't help but widen her eyes as she looked at Venti. So, at that time, it was because of her!
She had interrupted his communication with Dvalin, which ultimately led to Venti getting infected.
But somehow, something felt off... Afterward, regarding Lumine's brother, Venti stated that he didn't know and told them to go ask the other Gods.
Indeed, this God of Mondstadt was not as useful as the Knights of Favonius; they could even help her post missing person notices.
Then Venti introduced everyone to the God he was most familiar with, the Geo Archon!
And there was another important matter: the Rite of Descension would soon be held in Liyue.
During their conversation, Alex had been slacking off on the side, as he already knew everything there was to know.
Bored, he suddenly thought of something and took the opportunity to check Venti's attributes.
To be honest, every time he had to appraise them, he had to pull out his phone.
Since coming here, he rarely kept his phone in hand to play with, as there wasn't much interesting content on it; he only used it as a backpack.
This scan appraisal was not as good as a direct glance. It seemed there were still a few he hadn't seen yet.
Venti/Barbatos, Elemental Manifestation. Race: Anemo Elemental Spirit. Status: God (A small spirit with the status of a God.) Faction: Mondstadt. Gnosis: Anemo. Level: 90/?. Constellation: 0.
Oh, wow, Venti is actually so strong. How did I not realize it? As expected of a God.
But what's with this level? Is his upper limit not 90?
..."How much longer until the Rite of Descension?"
After listening for a long time, Alex couldn't help but ask when he heard the crucial part.
The timing of this Rite of Descension would affect the direction of his plans.
Venti scratched his head, admitting he didn't know the exact time: "I'm not sure about that either, but it will start at least two months from now."
"Two and a half months, huh... That's plenty of time," Alex murmured.
The time is too short! Paimon exclaimed in her heart.
"It's the Rite of Descension! Why didn't you say something so important sooner? Lumine, let's go quickly!" Paimon said anxiously.
Although there were at least two months left.
But Lumine would play and look around on the way.
She even liked to help when people asked for assistance, and helping often took half a day, which was a huge time sink.
Moreover, Paimon had noticed that Lumine particularly disliked following her planned routes, often running off to pick sweet flowers, Sunsettias, and other materials.
She would fight monsters all over the world looking for treasure chests, and even pick up scattered anemoculi when she had nothing else to do!
She didn't know what the point of collecting them was; they were just energy gathered from Anemo elements!!! And they couldn't even use it.
At most, they could be used in the Statue of The Seven to make its elemental power more abundant.
So, at that time, a journey that should have taken less than ten minutes was dragged out by Lumine to an hour or two or more.
Furthermore, Liyue wasn't close to here, so even leaving now might not be enough time.
"Wait, I have one more thing," Seeing that Venti had almost finished talking with the two, Alex quickly said.
"Oh, what else do you have? Ask away," Venti said, looking at Alex.
"I helped you with such a big favor, taking care of Dvalin's matter. Asking for a Gnosis isn't too much, is it?" Alex said, reaching out his hand unceremoniously.
"Eh~" Venti was a bit surprised.
"A Gnosis???" Lumine and Paimon were both confused.
At this point, Venti took the opportunity to explain to everyone about Visions and allogenes... "allogenes?" allogenes were indeed explained this way.
"Activate!!!"
Then Venti continued to explain about the Gnosis.
"The Gods' magical organs resonate and connect with Celestia; that's what he means by Gnosis," Venti said.
Paimon looked at Venti's waist, looking very surprised: "Huh? Then the Vision hanging on your waist..."
Venti narrowed his eyes and scratched his head: "Ehe, this is just a glowing glass orb, used to avoid unnecessary suspicion."
"You're deceiving my feelings again, but I'm used to it," Lumine said. Can he even fool them about this?!
Venti continued to explain about the Gnosis: "The Gnosis is a higher-level elemental control core, a symbol of the Seven Archons' seats."
Finally, Venti looked at Alex: "So, are you actually a Fatui member? And you also want to seize the Gnosis."
"That's not it, but..." Alex looked at Venti, then at the Traveler and Paimon.
He really wanted to ask here if the power of the Anemo Archon's Gnosis could save Focalors.
If one wasn't enough, would two be enough, or three?
"Never mind, you'll know later," In the end, Alex could only shake his head and wave his hand.
If he brought this up, he'd have to explain everything, which might affect the course of events. It's better to get the Gnosis first, then tell Focalors directly.
"Eh? What is it, exactly?! You annoying riddle-speaker," Paimon was very uncomfortable, left hanging by Alex's words.
She hated it when people only spoke half of something.
"So, just tell me if you're giving it or not!" Alex again reached out his hand impolitely, even making a threat?
"You wouldn't want to have a heart-to-heart with the Lady, would you?" Alex said, making a gesture of digging out a heart.
"Ehe~" Venti chuckled. For the Lady, he might actually go easy on her and let her take it.
Then, Venti thought for a moment and still took out the Gnosis.
"Eh? Is this the Gnosis?! It's actually a... chess piece??" Paimon was very surprised to see the Gnosis, which was constantly emitting green light.
"Mm," Venti nodded.
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