Genshin Impact is a big stage, come if you dare

"What about these statues..." Paimon felt even more confused.

“No matter how weak a demon god is, the power lost upon death is far beyond what a mortal body can bear. Those who fail to escape become the salt man statues in this ruin,” Zhongli explained.

"The people of the Salt Demon God who had escaped the disaster left her territory and went to Liyue to ask for the protection of the Rock Emperor. Their descendants were afraid that Heulia would leave behind the remnants of the demon god and that she would curse them forever. They risked their lives to return here, broke the sword that killed her, and enshrined it here, hoping to appease her wrath."

“But actually, they are doing this in vain,” Zhongli looked at Wanyan, the descendant of the Salt Demon God’s people. “How could this Demon God, who never resisted until the very end, be angry with his own people...?”

"I see," Paimon understood completely. "Although Heulia was weak in the face of war, she was also truly gentle and kind. That's why she didn't resist when she died, and didn't leave any demon residue. But..." The power generated when she fell still turned the nearby people into salt statues, frozen at the moment of death.

Wanyan, who was comforted implicitly by Zhongli, was completely unable to continue thinking. She was immersed in the collapse of the simultaneous destruction of faith and hatred, and ran out of the ruins in a daze, muttering something.

"It seems like she can't accept the reality for now." Paimon looked at the place where Wanyan disappeared, and then found, "Hey, she also threw down the salt ruler."

Zhongli picked up the salt ruler and said, "Next, how about accompanying me to Guyun Pavilion?"

"What are you going there for?" Paimeng asked, but his body honestly followed Zhongli. Su Hekong looked at Zhongli's unusually depressed look and followed him without saying anything.

——*——*——

On the steep cliff top of Guyun Pavilion, the sea breeze seems to be able to take away all the regrets and depression.

"Now that the immortals have handed Liyue over to mortals, the salt cups and salt rulers left by Heulia should not be returned to Liyue Harbor." Zhongli looked at the sea, as if he could see the suppressed demons beneath it. "Letting them stay here is both a way of sleeping and a way of returning home."

"Zhongli, are you going to throw them down?" Paimeng scratched his head. "The salt ruler is okay, but the salt cup..." Do you remember that you gave the salt cup to Su?

“Hmm…” Zhongli had a rare headache, “I forgot for a moment.”

Paimon and Zhongli looked at Su together. What price would it take to get back what they had given to Su this time?

"Why are you looking at me?" Su was confused. "I threw that thing to Kong. Go and discuss it with him."

A spice jar! A second-hand one! She didn't want it.

The sensible Kong took out the salt cup directly.

A golden divine light shone from Zhongli's body, and with a wave of his hand, the salt cup and salt ruler were thrown deep into the seabed. From then on, the miracle of Liyue Harbor was reduced by one point.

"I ended an era with my own hands, and I have been thinking about how to record the history that I ended." Zhongli looked at the wisps of wind and clouds under his feet, as well as the sea where he had suppressed many demons.

"History can be recorded, but it is not reliable. Time has great power, and history will be distorted over the years." Zhongli seemed to be talking about this incident, but it seemed to have a deeper meaning, "I need to find a better "recording method" to engrave the true history."

“Carving history on stone tablets is a way of recording that many civilizations use. However, the seemingly unchanging rock, the seemingly unchanging world and I...may all disappear one day.”

"So I thought of you." Zhongli turned around and looked at Kong and Su seriously, "You are the ones who have traveled far across the sky and across the sea of ​​stars. If I engrave history in your memory, I can travel to another world with you one day in the future."

As long as you, as travelers, "record" it, the era and history of Teyvat will have a kind of "existential backup."

"Um..." Paimon felt that he knew a lot of answers today, but he had more questions, such as, "So Zhongli, do you think Su is from outside the world like Kong?"

Zhongli just smiled and said nothing.

Su thought about it and felt that Zhongli's statement was not wrong. She did come from the real world to this game world, which could be considered as coming from outside the world.

After unexpectedly learning that Su was a world traveler like himself, Kong quietly held the girl's hand. The idea that he had vaguely thought about before, that he could find a suitable place and someone he could trust to keep Su so that she could live a stable life, disappeared at this moment.

"Zhongli has also become a 'Riddler'," Paimon was speechless, "Can't he just tell us some confidential things directly!"

"Hmm," Zhongli pondered for a moment and revealed a world-class secret, "The original inhabitants of Teyvat were not humans and demons, but various elemental creatures and their masters, the Elemental Dragon Kings."

"Eh?!" Paimon's eyes widened, while Kong and Su were very calm. Kong had encountered all kinds of situations after traveling through many worlds.

Su is also knowledgeable in a sense. After all, these are the basic operations set by the game. Some of them will even have time loops, reincarnation of fate and so on.

"I would like to stay here a little longer. I'm afraid that the opportunities to reminisce like this will become fewer and fewer in the future." Zhongli said that he wanted to be alone and enjoy the ocean breeze.

"Okay," Paimon said with a tactful look, "then we'll go first."

——*——*——

"Although we learned a big secret, it doesn't seem to be of much help to us in finding our sister." In Paimon's mouth, Kong's sister has become the common sister of the Traveler Team. When mentioning her, he rarely says her name "Ying" but calls her sister directly.

“Hmm…” Kong lowered his eyes slightly disappointed. He seldom showed such an expression. Paimon and Su surrounded him with concern.

"What's wrong with you?" Paimon remembered that when she got up at night, she saw Sora sitting quietly on the grass through the window. "Did you not sleep well last night? Or did you have a nightmare?"

Sora, who was indeed having a nightmare, whispered, "I dreamed that I was falling into endless darkness..."

"I also dreamed that my sister walked forward without looking back, and I couldn't catch her no matter how hard I tried." Kong looked at his empty palm, "She said that I... came too late."

A hand wearing a gold bracelet held his hand, and Kong looked up to see the girl's eyes full of confidence in him.

"If Kong falls into darkness, I will pull you out. If your sister doesn't want to come back, I will help you persuade her." Su was full of confidence in Kong, "No matter what, you will be reunited!"

"Yeah!" Following the throbbing in his heart, Kong opened his arms and hugged the girl tightly.

After a long time——

"Really? How long are we going to hold them for?" Paimeng felt that the amount of food this time was too much, and the expression on his face changed from the auntie smile at the beginning to an expression of being too full and fed up.

Su, who was stabbed by the ornament on Kong's chest for a while, pushed Kong away directly, and then found that Kong was actually - "asleep."