At Wangshu Inn in Liyue, Li Mo was telling the story of the fifteenth life in his characteristic storyteller's tone.
Just as he reached the part where the red oni wanted to play with the children but was pelted with beans, a furious shout erupted from below.
"Aha! These brats are way too bold! How dare they bully an oni?"
"Are they acting like this great one doesn't exist?"
"All of you, stop right there!"
"Anyone who dares to throw beans and bully a young oni, this great one won't let you off easily! I'll throw every single one of you into the Shogunate's prison!"
"Let that Kujou Turtle teach you a lesson!"
It was Arataki Itto's voice.
As an oni "warrior," when he saw someone bullying a young red oni, he was naturally furious.
He couldn't help but stand up, pointing at the virtual images above the inn and shouting, even wanting to rush in and shield the red oni with his own body.
He was about to charge forward when Kazuha managed to grab him in time, or else it would have been truly embarrassing.
When Itto interrupted Li Mo's storytelling, everyone in the audience turned to look at him with angry expressions.
This guy really was a street thug.
Even when listening to stories in the inn, he couldn't stay quiet.
How annoying.
"Hey, that oni called Itto, can you stop shouting? You're disrupting our listening!"
"You're also disrupting the storyteller."
"This Arataki... whatever Itto oni, does he have some kind of problem? Can't he tell the difference between a story and reality?"
"Those are story images! They happened a long, long time ago! Not right now!"
"What's the point of you shouting?"
"Be quiet and listen to the storyteller properly!"
If they were outside the inn or on the streets of Liyue and encountered a tall, imposing oni, these ordinary audience members would have felt some fear and would have avoided him.
But this was Wangshu Inn.
In one corner sat several gods, and in another corner sat the Yuheng and a disciple of the adepti. When did an oni get to act so arrogantly here?
With these powerful figures backing them up, even in the face of the imposing Arataki Itto, the Liyue audience felt no fear.
They even dared to scold him openly.
But fortunately, Itto was staring intently at the red oni being pelted with beans in the images. His entire attention was on the story above.
He had no time to pay attention to the audience.
He also didn't notice their murmurs.
Itto raised a hand and pointed at the virtual images above, shouting, "Storyteller, bring the story down here! Let this great one help the little red oni!"
Li Mo was speechless.
This street thug really did have a strange way of thinking.
Little Paimon quickly flew over to Itto and pushed his raised hand down. "Cow Herder, you need to calm down!"
"Those images are just recreations of the story!"
"They're not real!"
Itto paused. "Ah? So that means what's happening in the images isn't real? The little red oni was never pelted with beans?"
Paimon was speechless. "No, no, no... It already happened a long time ago. Yelling about it now won't help the little red oni at all!"
Little Paimon had tried her best to explain to Itto to calm him down.
Itto: "Oh, I think I understand a little. But bullying an oni is still wrong! Stop it right now!"
"Stop throwing beans!"
Paimon was speechless.
This Cow Herder hadn't listened at all.
Just as Itto was shouting nonstop, and Keqing, Kazuha, and Xiangling were all trying to hold him back but couldn't stop him, in another corner of the inn, Ei frowned deeply.
She could no longer tolerate it. She shouted angrily, "Who's making all that noise?"
Paimon: "It wasn't me!"
Xiangling: "It wasn't me or Guoba!"
Kazuha: "..."
Hu Tao: "It was this Cow Herder—no, it's Arataki... Itto! That's his name! It's so hard to remember!"
Hearing Ei's voice, Itto had wanted to keep shouting, but suddenly remembering something, he quickly shut his mouth.
This lightning lady was pretty tough. Better not provoke her.
Itto said confidently, "Ahem... You must have seen wrong. This great one wasn't shouting!"
Paimon: "Cow Herder, we all saw you! It was you shouting!"
Xiangling: "Alright, alright! Everyone stop arguing! Quiet down and let the storyteller continue!"
Finally, thanks to Ei's intimidation, Itto was calmed down.
At the same time, in another corner of the inn, Ei was eating her snacks and waiting for the storyteller to continue, feeling quite pleased.
She was certain that in all these thousands of years, she had never seen these two little oni, the blue and the red.
So the story of the fifteenth life definitely had nothing to do with her.
With this thought, Ei picked up another sweet snack and happily ate it.
Barbatos smiled. "That oni called Arataki Itto seems a bit shaken."
Ei: "Even if he's shaken, he can't disrupt the storytelling. Let the storyteller continue. We need to finish all these reincarnations as soon as possible."
She was now just waiting for the storyteller to finish all the reincarnations so her brother could return.
She missed him so much.
It wasn't just Ei. Barbatos, Diluc, and even the Conqueror of Demons Xiao all felt the same way.
They were all waiting for that person's return.
Only Zhongli's expression remained unchanged, looking indifferently at everything around him.
He seemed completely unmoved.
These stories hadn't affected him at all.
...
When Itto quieted down, the rest of the audience quickly fell silent as well.
They waited for the storyteller to continue.
On stage, seeing the audience quiet down, Li Mo resumed his storytelling.
As he spoke, the Electro energy above the inn shifted once more, forming clear images.
In the images, a group of children were grabbing handfuls of beans and throwing them at the little red oni.
The red oni ran, and the children chased him, throwing beans.
They only stopped when they had driven the red oni far away. Then they cheered like victorious warriors, jumping for joy.
"Yay yay yay—"
"We defeated the red oni—"
"That red evil oni won't dare come out and scare us anymore—"
"Next time he tries to scare us, we'll just throw beans at him again and see how he escapes!"