"Your Excellency, I have found some medicine for you..."
Zhongli stared straight ahead, his steady tone accompanied the sound of footsteps, and his rock-white earrings were brighter than the misty candles in the corner.
There are faint golden waves symbolizing ancient elements flowing slowly around the man's body. As a few strands of golden threads are injected into his heart, they finally become dull.
Famas' power is still as tyrannical as before, and Zhongli, who seems to be unaffected, has not yet completely suppressed the divine power of war.
Zhongli followed the voices and pushed open the door of the side hall of the Hall of Life.
What appeared before him was the scene of the traveler confronting Dadalia with a sword.
Famas stared intently at the girl and the seemingly docile executive, as if he was looking forward to the battle between the two. Wendy moved a few steps to the corner, fearing that the fight would affect the Liyue wine hidden in her hat.
It was only then that Zhongli remembered that he seemed to have forgotten to tell everyone that Dadalia was still hiding in the Hall of Purity.
"I didn't expect that the emperor of Liyue... would still remember me, a chess piece that has lost its value..."
Seeing the man in rock shirt carrying a medicine bag step into the hall, Dadalia's whale-blue eyes lowered and her heart sank to the bottom.
The three gods Morax, Barbatos, and Famas gathered together, and there were travelers eyeing them.
He has lost his last chance to escape.
But Dadalia could see that, except for the traveler and the little floating objects around her, the three gods all had a strange attitude towards him, as if they didn't care about the evil things the young executive had done.
Rather than saying it is indifferent, it is better to call it outright indifference, just like humans occasionally glimpse ants crawling in the mud.
"Ha...is this the arrogance of gods?"
"Mr. Zhongli, you really deceived me."
The air was filled with the smell of plum blossoms and rust. Dadalia put down his raised hands and shrugged helplessly.
As Dadalia said to the traveler in the Golden Room, he doesn't mind if his fighting partners keep their personal grudges against him, but there is something special about Zhongli.
Although Dadalia doesn't know where this specialness comes from.
Maybe it's the sadness of being betrayed by a friend, or maybe the annoyance of failing a mission.
As the executive officer of the Fools, Dadalia is loyal to Her Majesty the Queen of Solstice, and she should have a hostile relationship with Morax, the rock god of Liyue, even though that god was once a guest at the Hall of the Past.
"Um."
Of course, Zhongli couldn't guess what Dadalia was thinking. He was silent for a moment before slowly responding. Then he walked to Famas with the oil-paper medicine bag, opened the copper lamp that the young man had placed on the small stove, stretched out his hand and used the rock element to Construct a brown clay pot.
The dusty medicinal materials were ground into powder as Zhongli used his divine power, and mixed with the well water in the yard into the clay pot.
"Light a fire."
The emperor spoke softly to the young man at the table.
Famas looked at the opponent's delicate operation of controlling divine power, curled his lips in disdain, raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
Of course he could see that this was Zhongli's act of boiling medicine to prove to him that even if he lost his divine heart, he could still use his divine power freely.
After all, mastering subtleties is far more difficult than pouring out great power.
A bright but not dazzling flame floated in the stove, and the warm flames gradually dissipated the smell of blood that filled the hall.
The clay pot soon began to gurgling with steam. The traveler stared at Zhongli with puzzled eyes, then glanced at Famas and Wendy, and silently put away the long sword in his hand.
As the "mastermind" behind the emperor's plan to fake his own death, Zhongli does not seem to intend to capture Dadalia, who released the ancient demon.
And she is just a traveler in a foreign land, so what reason should she use to stop an executive who is loyal to other gods.
Paimon, who was hiding behind Wendy, also felt the weird atmosphere at the moment and shut his mouth in time.
In the eyes of everyone, the battle between the two gods ended too strangely.
When Famas summoned the remnants of heroic souls to take the lead in resisting the collapse of the space, Zhongli also rushed into the blood-colored cube that obscured his vision, holding the soul that was about to dissipate after all.
Then there was a crack in the sky that shook the sky, the red square chain suddenly retracted into the sky, and the entwined World Tree continued to disintegrate.
Wendy used the power of the wind god to blow away the debris deposited by the battle and threw it into the boundless sea of clouds. After Zhongli ordered everyone to wait in the Hall of Purity, he began to perform the drama of "The Death of the Emperor" with Famas in tacit understanding.
"You must all have questions about this war."
Zhongli walked to the shelf in the corner of the hall, took off the porcelain bowl on the top, poured out the boiled medicinal soup, and handed it to Dadalia, who had not yet completely let down her guard.
"Your Excellency, there are still some trauma plasters in the oil paper bag."
"Traveler, and little Paimon, if you are also concerned about the truth about the Immortal Invitation Ceremony, please follow me to the Bank of the North Country."
Zhongli extended invitations to several people in a calm tone, then held his chin and looked at Famas and Wendy.
The young poet's excited eyes kept glancing between Zhongli and Dadalia, with a look of excitement on his face, which made Famas turn his head helplessly, pretending not to recognize him.
"Oh my, my head hurts so much... I seem to have been injured in the battle..."
Hearing that everyone was preparing to go to Northland Bank, Wendy seemed to recall some bad memories, and suddenly covered her head and started to pretend to be sick.
Except for Dadalia, everyone stared at the poet holding the wine bottle with disgust, and Famas shook his head helplessly.
"I'll just stay in the Palace of the Reborn to look after the house...you guys go quickly."
Wendy's exaggerated acting skills did not have the desired effect. The little poet quickly winked at Famas, and then used his cloak to cover up and gestured to him.
Famas opened his eyes wide at first, and then an imperceptible smile appeared on his lips. He stood up and waved to Zhongli.
"This kind of thing should be easier to explain with me as the client present, right?"
"Also, Morax, don't forget the contract you signed on your own initiative."
The young man opened the hall door first and walked out. Zhongli looked back at Wendy, who was still pretending to be sick, and hesitantly followed Famas' pace.
He always felt that there was something fishy in the back and forth between the boy and Wendy.
When it came to the North Country Bank, Dadalia vaguely guessed the truth of the matter, drank the bitter soup in large gulps, and left without hesitation.
Ying and Paimon looked at each other and hurriedly caught up with the two gods who were about to leave.
In a moment, only the bard covering his head was left in Nuoda's Rebirth Hall.
After confirming that everyone had gone away, Wendy immediately propped herself up as if nothing was wrong, quickly climbed to the second floor of the Hall of Purity, came to the door of Zhongli's bedroom, and slipped in through the crack of the door like a breeze.
When the little poet opened the door and came out, his arms were filled with all kinds of wines exuding mellow aroma.
Especially for the bottles of wine with the strongest aroma, the cellaring dates marked on the cork seals even predate some of the newly born Seven Rulers of the Earth.
"I've helped so much and brought a few bottles of wine. The old man shouldn't care about it, right?"
After getting the wine, Wendy immediately left the Hall of Purity and fled towards Guiliji in a secretive manner.
On the low hills on the northern outskirts of Liyue Port, Tevarin, who was summoned by the Song of Thousand Winds, has been waiting for a long time.
It's just that in the blue vertical pupils of the Dragon of the East Wind, there is a helpless look that hates the iron that cannot be transformed into steel.
"I am the guardian of the east wind, the king of the sky in the past, the dragon that tears the sky apart..."
"You actually want to run away with a god who steals wine..."
"Get down to business, Barbatos!"
It’s yang, it’s yin, I just got home (_`)
(End of chapter)
