northernbook Chapter 124 Kiana: So tired, I just want to lie down.
Chapter 124 Kiana: So tired, I just want to lie down.
It turned out that going to the Imaginary Tree to find the answer was the right thing to do; Kiana really did find a way to block out the laws of nature.
Surprisingly, the provider of this method was the water god Fukaros. Kiana originally thought that Fukaros, as the god of judgment, would be on the side of justice, since the line in the Footprint PV that "only justice cannot be opposed" was too deceptive.
I never expected Fontaine's crisis to turn out like this. No wonder Fukaros, as a second-generation god, would choose to defy the laws of nature.
Having learned the ins and outs of the Fontaine Crisis and how to evade the gaze of the Heavenly Principle, Kiana couldn't help but sigh that having the Imaginary Tree as her backer was truly cheating. No wonder both He and her future self chose to sever the link between her and the Imaginary Tree from the beginning; if they hadn't, she probably would already know all the necessary information, complete all her missions, and set off to find the missing captain.
Even the captain's whereabouts could be locked from the very beginning, and after completing the mission, the Hyperion could be used to teleport to the captain's world. Although it's unknown what mindset the future self would have when observing him, that so-called unified will was definitely observing him with the mindset of watching a TV drama.
Thinking about it this way, it's understandable that He wouldn't want to be able to quickly traverse a world, and that He would choose to restrict His own abilities.
Perhaps in His own vision, He was completely unable to connect to the Tree of Imaginary Numbers. It was His future self who intervened in this outcome, causing the story, which was originally only of normal difficulty, to become completely easy.
The topic had strayed a bit, and Kiana shook her head, bringing her thoughts back to saving the Dragon King Jotaka. Escaping the surveillance of the Heavenly Principles was simple: just create a space undetectable by the Heavenly Principles, like Fukaros did.
Speaking of Fukaros, Kiana has to admit he's a ruthless individual. To resolve Fontaine's crisis, he completely separated his divinity from his humanity. His divine side, carrying all his plans, fled into the space within the Cardinal of Decree and Judgment to escape the gaze of divine justice. His human side, however, had no memories related to Fukaros, not even knowing his own identity, only that he was just an ordinary human.
What Fukaros wants to do is to have this new being named Funinna impersonate the water god to deceive the laws of nature, and ultimately destroy the throne by collecting energy to return the power of the ancient water dragon to the water dragon king, so that the water dragon king can solve the crisis in Fontaine.
To this end, she even invited the then-young Water Dragon King, Navelette, to come to Fontaine and work for her for hundreds of years for free, all so that Navelette and Fontaine could develop feelings for each other and he could use his ancient dragon power to help Fontaine overcome crises at crucial moments.
The most tragic of them all is undoubtedly Furina, even though she is indeed the human side of Fucarus. But ever since Fucarus separated divinity from humanity, the new will born in her human body is no longer the pure Fucarus, but a completely new being named Furina.
Despite being just a newborn individual, she instinctively accepted Fucarus's request to impersonate the water god because of her love for him. Fucarus even cursed her to ensure the plan would not go wrong, making her an immortal being.
Imagine how exhausting it would be for someone to constantly impersonate a god without being discovered—something Funina has endured for centuries. Now, Funina is on the verge of collapse, and all that keeps her going is that elusive promise.
However, it's too early to say anything now. If there's an opportunity in the future, Kiana will definitely help Fontaine overcome the crisis.
However, upon closer reflection, without Kiana's interference, Navelette might have been the first, and perhaps even the only, elemental dragon king to reclaim the power of the ancient dragons. What's unexpected is that despite being at the pinnacle of elemental life, Navelette wasn't like his familiar, the water dragon lizard, who was beastly; instead, he descended into this world with a human appearance.
Therefore, the so-called Elemental Dragon King is merely a title, and the appearance of the Dragon King may depend on the appearance of the creature at the apex of Teyvat's creatures. Humans are undoubtedly at that apex now, which may be part of the reason.
As the Water Dragon King, Navelette's aesthetic sense was somewhat influenced by it, which led him to prefer a creature called Melousin, a local species in Fontaine, to the Water Dragon Lizard.
Although Navisette hasn't explicitly made her part of her family, the local water dragons already consider Melsin to be part of Navisette's family and are jealous of her. Kiana is quite interested in this kind of rivalry for Navisette's affections and could interview the parties involved about their feelings when she has time.
After setting herself another completely unrelated goal, Kiana once again pulled herself back to reality.
Creating a space that can escape the notice of the heavens is simple; it can be easily done using the abilities of the Herrscher of the Void. After all, judging from the nature of the space where Fukaros hides, it's at most just creating a small space within an object.
Indeed, since Heaven's justice has fallen into slumber, only the maintainers of Heaven's justice among the four rulers who are in charge of its management are actually working. The other three rulers also have their own agendas, so while it seems difficult to evade Heaven's justice, it is actually quite simple to do.
The current issues remain focused on how to persuade Zhongli and the need for an item that can connect to the divine throne.
Having the corresponding Divine Heart would be ideal, but the problem is that Zhongli's Divine Heart had already been given to the Ice God as a condition of the contract. She herself doesn't know the location of Zhidong, yet she has very little information about this. It's hard not to suspect that this is another trap set by her future self.
So, is it some strange tradition for your future self to sabotage you? Shouldn't you be thankful that your future self won't actually travel back in time to hunt you down?
But should we do it? The plan has been set, but it has been stuck from the beginning. To execute it, we need the Heart of God, but the Heart of God is in the hands of the Winter Queen.
I don't know where the winter solstice is, and I can't get any specific information from the Tree of Imaginary Numbers.
This means that it is necessary to persuade Zhongli. With his help, Kiana might have a certain probability of successfully finding the coordinates of the Rock God's Throne without the Heart of God. However, how to persuade Zhongli has become a problem.
Just thinking about it gave Kiana a headache. Based on her understanding of Zhongli, she really had no confidence that she could persuade Zhongli to join the plan!
After some time, a knock on the door interrupted Kiana's thoughts. Opening the door, Kiana found it was Gan Yu. Gan Yu had come because Mei was worried Kiana wouldn't eat properly alone, so she had asked Gan Yu to bring Kiana to Xinyuexuan after the meeting.
Originally, Gan Yu only needed to arrange for his servants to handle this matter, but considering that this was General Lei Dian's request, and that someone who could become General Lei Dian's friend must not be an ordinary person.
So Gan Yu ended up handling it himself. However, to Gan Yu's surprise, the so-called friend of the Thunder General was actually one of Ningguang's key targets.
After all, Kiana suddenly appeared in Mondstadt and soon after arrived in Liyue. She was also friends with Fu Hua, who was suspected to be a sage. This alone was enough to pique Ningguang's interest and make her a key person to observe.
Unfortunately, no matter how Ningguang investigated, she could only trace it back to when she first appeared in Mondstadt a few months ago, just as Kiana and Bronya suddenly appeared in this world a few months ago.
However, none of this has anything to do with the present. After briefly explaining the reason, Gan Yu left, leaving Kiana alone awkwardly watching Gan Yu's receding figure.
And judging from the direction they left, it didn't seem to be heading towards Xinyuexuan; it looked more like they were going to the port. I really don't know if it was due to overwork and lack of sleep that caused this oversight, or if Gan Yu really thought she knew how to get to Xinyuexuan!
Regardless of the reason, Gan Yu's behavior was not in accordance with etiquette. If Kiana were petty, she could use this as an excuse. However, Kiana is neither part of Inazuma's diplomatic mission nor does she intend to gain any advantage from the Liyue Septim.
After all, with her strength, she could obtain what the Seven Stars of Liyue could offer herself, so there was no need to risk offending the authorities by discussing this matter at the dinner party.
So, with Kiana's understanding, Ningguang didn't blame Ganyu. After all, Ningguang was too busy coaxing Ganyu to blame her for something so trivial.
After all, not just anyone can be a secretary to the Seven Stars of Liyue. The experience of Gan Yu choosing to return to the mountains due to some misunderstandings, which almost caused her three secretaries to die on the job, is still fresh in everyone's mind.
Although the meeting had ended, the content of the dinner, according to Liyue tradition, was equally important. Clearly, Ayato Kamisato on the other side was well aware of this, and the two continued their subtle but fierce competition throughout the dinner.
Unfortunately, this didn't stop Kiana from eating; she just wanted to replenish her energy from the whole day.
After all, she hadn't rested since she disembarked, only managing to eat some simple dry rations to fill her stomach. Now that she was presented with such a sumptuous dinner, it would be a shame not to eat more.
So the two, who had been arguing openly and secretly, saw that there was less and less food on the table, and temporarily put aside their dispute and joined the army of rice eaters. After all, if they didn't eat quickly, there really wouldn't be any left.
After a satisfying meal, today's meeting officially came to an end. The diplomatic relations and trade between Liyue and Inazuma have been largely discussed, with only minor details remaining to be addressed tomorrow.
Back at Yujingtai, Ningguang began to review the day's meeting, and she fell into deep thought as she looked at the meeting report in her hand.
Given her personality, she could have easily used the influence of the isolationist policy to force the Inazuma delegation to make concessions in trade, but the other side also knew that they were in the wrong in this regard, so Raijin was also among the delegation invited this time.
This forced Ningguang to be more cautious in dealing with Inazuma's envoy at the meeting, since they had already invited their own deity, and it would be unreasonable for Liyue not to give them some face.
For the first time, Ningguang deeply felt how much influence the existence of gods in a country could have. If the Emperor were still alive, she might not be in such a passive position.
For a fleeting moment, Ningguang had the idea of recommending someone to be the new Rock God. After being frightened by her own thought, Ningguang quickly banished this terrible idea.
Without the Emperor's presence, Liyue naturally lacks confidence in diplomacy, and tomorrow's talks are unlikely to go well. Unfortunately, Keqing is out surveying the terrain at this crucial moment; otherwise, with her there, Liyue wouldn't be facing so much pressure.
While Ningguang was still agonizing over how to maximize Liyue's benefits from tomorrow's meeting, Ayato Kamisato was also struggling with the same issue.
After all, he knew Mei's true identity perfectly well; he was merely using the general's authority to intimidate others at the general's behest. In the end, it was all just a bluff, and if he were exposed, everything he had maintained today would vanish, and his side would fall into an irreversible predicament in the subsequent talks.
Therefore, maintaining this lie tomorrow becomes one of the key priorities. As the saying goes, the more you do, the more mistakes you make. Perhaps it would be better to simply exclude Mei from tomorrow's meeting, Ayato thought to himself.
Anyway, the purpose of coming to Liyue has been achieved, and tomorrow is just to supplement the details, so there is no need for Mei to show up.
Just then, Mei came over and said that she didn't want to participate in tomorrow's meeting.
Once is fine, but if you go a second or even third time, the chances of the other party discovering that you are impersonating General Thunder are much greater, and you will feel uneasy about your conscience if you continue to play the role.
Therefore, Mei hoped not to attend tomorrow's meeting, which coincided with Ayato's thoughts. It just so happened that it was during Liyue's Moon Festival, and tomorrow's meeting was only about finalizing some issues; Mei's absence would allow her to spend time with Ayato.
After all these years, it's time for Ayaka to go out and see the world. With this in mind, Ayato Kamisato agreed to Mei's request and asked Mei to accompany Ayaka Kamisato to the Moon Festival the next day.
Mei would agree to anything as long as it wasn't a meeting, and she could also invite Kiana to go shopping and relax tomorrow.
As for why Bronya wasn't invited, it's because she disappeared the moment she disembarked, ostensibly to gather material for her game. Right now, Bronya's probably still gathering material in some strange place; Mei understands Bronya's personality after all these years of getting to know her.
Anyway, Bronya doesn't cause me as much worry as Kiana, so I might as well let her go.
So the next day, Ningguang was overjoyed to see that only Ayato Kamisato had come; today's meeting was going well!