Standing on the beach, Tartaglia looked toward the white-haired girl standing on a large rock not far ahead.
Seeing her standing there in a daze, his expression shifted slightly.
The Vision on his body lit up faintly. The next second, two sharp blades made of Hydro appeared in his hands.
While the other party was distracted by whatever she was thinking about, he prepared to make Kiana lose her ability to move in one strike.
The blades sliced through the air, aiming at Kiana's slender neck.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
"..."
Tartaglia's throat bobbed slightly.
The tips of the Abyss Lances were pressed tightly against vital points all over his body. As long as he dared make any other move, they could immediately make him lose his ability to move.
Meeting the cold golden eyes of the girl before him, Tartaglia first felt puzzled.
'Were her eyes this color before?'
Then he put on a friendly smile. "Friend, I think you've misunderstood. I really am not the Quack Duck you're looking for."
"What does that have to do with me?"
The other party's words left Tartaglia stunned.
You're not the one looking for the Quack Duck, so why does it have nothing to do with you now?
'Give him to me!'
Kiana, who had been pushed aside, gritted her teeth as she stared at Tartaglia.
Damn it! He actually attacked while this lady was chatting!
What a despicable guy!
Under Tartaglia's gaze, the color of Kiana's pupils changed from gold back to blue, and the coldness on her face disappeared.
In its place was a faint smile and her hands rubbing together in anticipation.
"Friend, are you short on Mora?"
Seeing that the situation was not right, Tartaglia tried to make friends with Kiana. "I have a..."
Bang!
"You talk too much."
Kiana threw a straight punch, and Tartaglia immediately stopped talking.
Clearly, the other party was not someone who lacked Mora.
The make-friends tactic had failed.
He wanted to fight back, but the Abyss Lances were pressed against his body, and could leave several holes in him at any moment.
So he could only endure it.
He could only admit that he was unlucky. He had gone out today without checking the almanac and encountered someone looking for trouble.
Watching Kiana approach him with her fists swinging, Tartaglia was not worried.
His body had been tempered through countless battles. With the opponent being a woman, she could not cause too much injury without using a weapon.
Bang!
Another punch landed, and Tartaglia's expression changed drastically.
"Wait!"
'This strength wasn't right, was it?'
'The first punch definitely hadn't been this powerful!'
Kiana explained, "The first punch was just to test how strong your body was, so I wouldn't accidentally kill you with too much force."
Looking at Kiana swinging her fist again, Tartaglia shouted, "Wait!"
Bang!
"Wait!"
Bang!!
"****! Demon King!"
Bang!!!
"Even if you call me Demon King, I'm not going to stop!"
"..."
The ceremony venue was filled with noise.
A god had passed away, and a new god was taking the throne. Something like this might not happen even once in several hundred years.
So many people had come to watch.
Although the people of Liyue were skeptical about the identity and abilities of this new god, with the various Adepti of Jueyun Karst vouching for him, the opposition was not as strong as one might have imagined.
Levi had Zhongli, who had been forced to put on an outfit, appear before everyone.
A large hood covered his head, hiding the upper half of Zhongli's face.
When Cloud Retainer and the others saw him like this, most of their doubts disappeared.
With an appearance exactly the same as the statues of the god in the wilderness, if he wasn't the Geo Archon, then who was?
"Sigh~"
Zhongli let out a deep sigh.
He glanced at Levi, who was standing among Cloud Retainer and the others, his face full of smiles.
"May I ask what brings you to Liyue?"
Clearly, he was too lazy to keep pretending. Everyone present already more or less knew his identity anyway.
Zhongli directly asked Levi why he had come.
"Of course, to fulfill the Geo Archon's final decree."
Now that he had stopped pretending, Levi instead pretended to be confused.
Zhongli calmly looked at him. "I don't remember leaving behind any so-called 'final decree.'"
'He admitted it! He admitted it!'
Cloud Retainer and the others transformed into human forms and respectfully addressed Zhongli, "Please forgive us for what we have done!"
"A nation cannot be without a god for even a single day! We had no choice!"
"Indeed, indeed!", Levi chimed in from the side.
"The Archon War ended thousands of years ago. 'Cannot be without a god' has long since become a thing of the past."
"Now is the age of humanity."
Zhongli rubbed his brow, never expecting that the Adepti would still hold such ideas.
Perhaps it had something to do with them rarely interacting with the mortal world?
"Liyue is currently facing troubles both within and without..."
"That is precisely what I want to see."
Zhongli's words left Cloud Retainer and the others stunned.
Troubles both within and without... was this what the Geo Archon wanted to see?
Mountain Shaper, the Prime of the Chiselled Peaks, pondered and said, "The Geo Archon must have a deeper meaning behind this."
It was simply that their own knowledge was too shallow for them to see it.
"Presumably, through this method, he wanted to see whether the people of Liyue could rely on themselves and make it through. If they succeed, Morax will truly die. If they fail..."
Levi looked toward Zhongli and said, "I don't need to say more. You should all know what will happen."
He will return like lightning.
"So... if that's the case, haven't we ruined the Geo Archon's plan?!", Mountain Shaper spoke in shock.
They had thought it was a reckless action, but unexpectedly, the Geo Archon's plan had been so perfect.
He glanced at Zhongli, who remained silent. Although Zhongli said nothing, the helpless look in his eyes had already made everything clear.
After a long while, Zhongli said, "My fault. I should have told you all beforehand."
Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper looked toward Levi, and even Cloud Retainer looked toward Levi as well.
Noticing three pairs of eyes looking at him, Levi scratched his cheek and said with slight embarrassment, "Why are you all looking at me like that... Let me make one thing clear first. I don't do supernatural stuff. Furry stuff, maybe I could consider it... but I don't do supernatural stuff either."
Even Zhongli, who had lived in Liyue Harbor for many years and interacted with mortals every day, could not understand what he meant.
Not to mention the Adepti who had lived in a place as sparsely populated as Jueyun Karst for years.
'What supernatural stuff? What furry stuff?'
'They didn't understand! They really didn't understand!'
At this moment, there was only one thing in their minds.
"You said you would hang yourself in Jueyun Karst, didn't you?", Cloud Retainer spoke first.
Because of Levi, they had ruined the Geo Archon's plan. Obviously, they had to do something, otherwise it would be hard to justify.
The other two Adepti also nodded after hearing this.
"Indeed."
"I still remember the scene when he said those words."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Levi interrupted them and shouted, "What I said was that I would hang myself in Jueyun Karst if I turned out to have judged him wrong!"
But he hadn't judged him wrong either. Wasn't Zhongli the Geo Archon?
Did he still have to fulfill his oath?
"Hmph!" Cloud Retainer pushed up her glasses. "As an Adeptus of Jueyun Karst, you ruined the Geo Archon's plan. Don't you need to do something as compensation?"
"But I'm not an Adeptus of Jueyun..."
"Silence!"
Cloud Retainer signaled to Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver with her eyes. After receiving the instruction, the two quickly took out talismans, wrote Levi's name on them, and then took a drop of his blood and pressed it onto them.
The talismans then turned into flames and disappeared.
Everything happened in an instant. By the time Levi reacted, it was already over.
Cloud Retainer cleared her throat and said, "From now on, you are an Adeptus of Jueyun Karst."
She then extended her hand in indication.
"It's time for you to show what you can do."
"..."