"Not very well."
The moment those words left his mouth, Keqing's heart skipped a beat.
Even Ningguang's expression tightened ever so slightly.
As for the Adepti, their faces were already dark with worry.
If not for the fact that Su Ran was far too powerful— and the Geo Archon still in his hands— they might already have risked their lives to strike him down.
"He went to meet the Raiden Shogun in the name of the Geo Archon," Su Ran said casually,
"but the Shogun didn't recognize him. So, tell me—what do you think happened?"
At that, every immortal gaze turned toward Raiden Ei.
A half-dozen sharp, probing eyes stared at her in silence.
Ei fidgeted slightly under the attention.
"Ahem… that wasn't me! The one Morax met wasn't me—it was the Raiden Shogun."
She herself had done nothing!
Why was everyone looking at her?
"But… aren't you the Raiden Shogun?" Ningguang asked, clearly puzzled.
She still remembered the name "Baalzebul" from earlier.
Baalzebul, Baal… weren't they the same person?
Ei sighed. "I am the Raiden Shogun, yes… but Inazuma has more than one Raiden Shogun."
That revelation left the room frozen.
"W–wait," Keqing stammered, "you're saying… there's more than one Raiden Shogun?"
Her anger evaporated into sheer confusion.
Was she really that ignorant?
How could a single nation have multiple gods?
Wasn't that a bit… abstract?
So a country could actually have several Archons?
"My condolences," Cloud Retainer murmured softly.
The Adepti understood what she meant, even if Ei didn't.
The secret of the puppet Shogun was unknown to them, but the Fatui knew—thanks to the Wanderer's existence.
Inazuma had once had two twin Archons—Baal and Baalzebul.
And one of them had died.
For immortals who mourned even the passing of a mortal friend, the thought of one god losing her twin was unimaginable.
They could not truly comprehend Ei's pain, but they understood it must be deeper than anything they had ever known.
"Condolences… for what?" Ei asked blankly, blinking at them.
Why would she need comforting?
She had a Su Ran-Doraemon by her side.
If she wanted to, she could ask him to bring her sister back someday.
So no, she wasn't drowning in grief anymore.
Su Ran's very existence had given her too much hope.
If this were before she'd met him… she might have become another Huangquan—a self-annihilating god of despair.
Then the two of them could have wept for the dead together.
Cloud Retainer opened her beak, intending to explain, but Mountain Shaper promptly kicked her under the table.
"If you can't say something smart, don't say anything!" he hissed.
The last thing they needed was to remind Baalzebul of her loss and send her spiraling into depression again.
"I am quite capable of speaking properly!" Cloud Retainer snapped, though she wisely chose not to continue.
"Young man," she said instead, glaring at Su Ran, "what will it take for you to release the Geo Archon?"
Since Baalzebul offered no solution, they had to bargain with him directly.
Su Ran shrugged.
"What I want, you can't give.
There's no deal to be made—so why should I consider your feelings?"
Was there really anything in Liyue that could catch his interest?
Not anymore.
Yes, the architecture and cuisine carried a certain nostalgic charm— but nothing unique enough to keep him here.
If he wanted to feel "at home," he could just visit the Xianzhou Alliance— a place that felt far more like his real home than Teyvat ever would.
"What a joke!" Cloud Retainer snapped.
"How do you know we can't do it if you don't say what you want?"
Descenders were strong, yes, but strength didn't mean omnipotence.
They had lived for thousands of years— surely there were things they could do that even he could not.
Su Ran raised a brow. "Fine. I want a space station. Can you build me one?"
Cloud Retainer froze. "A… what?"
She had never heard of such a thing.
"Describe it," she said finally, feathers puffing in pride.
"Perhaps this immortal can help create one."
After all, how could she build what she didn't understand?
And her skill in mechanical arts was second to none— surely this 'space station' was just another kind of construct?
Su Ran folded his arms.
"It's something like the Jade Chamber— a floating structure suspended in the sky."
Cloud Retainer blinked. "That's it?"
The Jade Chamber wasn't impossible to recreate.
All it required was funding.
And the Adepti were hardly short on resources.
They could sell one artifact and fund a dozen Jade Chambers.
Even Ningguang's treasured floating stones were nothing rare to them.
For mortals, they were legends.
For the Adepti, cheap curiosities.
They could make things float without any special ore at all.
"Wait, wait," Su Ran said with a grin.
"A space station is similar to the Jade Chamber, but it exists beyond the planet— far above even Celestia."
He decided to give them a quick crash course in astrophysics.
He'd never been to space himself, but he knew the basics.
"There are solar storms, meteor impacts, planetary gravity—all of which a station must withstand.
Some disasters could even destroy Teyvat outright.
Could your construction survive that?"
Cloud Retainer fell silent.
If she could create a structure strong enough to resist a world-ending catastrophe, then she'd already be a god.
"…So you see?" Su Ran spread his hands.
"You can't do it.
I might as well wait for someone to just send me one."
"Who would ever give you such a divine artifact?" Cloud Retainer scoffed.
Something capable of resisting extinction-level disasters— and he expected someone to gift it?
Absurd!
"There's plenty of people who would." Su Ran smiled.
"I'm a member of the Genius Society, after all.
If I so much as mention what I want, someone will send it over."
The Genius Society wasn't the Intelligentsia Guild.
Every one of its members was someone the Interastral Peace Corporation would bend over backward to befriend.
A single friendship with a Genius was worth far more than any space station.
"Then why," Ningguang asked lightly, "has no one sent you one yet?"
Her curiosity was genuine.
This so-called "space station" sounded incredible— a fortress beyond the stars.
But what intrigued her even more was the weight of that title—member of the Genius Society.
After all, she'd seen him kill a demon god with a flick of his wrist.
And that made Ningguang… just a little more interested.
~~--------------------------------------
To read 30+ future chapters head over to patreon:
patreon.com/YonkoSlayer