Lumine raised her sword—coated in Abyssal power, the longsword effortlessly pierced through the eerie force surrounding "Xiangling," slashing straight at her neck...
"Xiangling's" head fell from her shoulders, rolling a few times on the ground.
Her body collapsed in a pool of blood, completely lifeless...
"Su Yuan, just as you said... once the original host dies, the eerie force dissipates along with them..."
Lumine looked at Xiangling's body lying in the blood and slowly said:
"You never needed to save anyone. And you can't save everyone..."
"This is the fastest way to deal with the eerie..."
Su Yuan stared in shock at the scene before him.
Xiangling?
Xiangling just... died like that?
Lumine—wasn't she being a little too cold-blooded...?
But before Su Yuan could even recover from his shock, he felt an intense surge of eerie power erupting behind him!
The entire space suddenly seemed to heat up...
"Xiang... ling..."
Su Yuan turned around.
It was "Guoba"...
"Guoba"—he spoke...
Tears of blood were also streaming down from the corners of his eyes...
Guoba, now radiating an overwhelming eerie power, forced "Paimon" back and moved to Lumine's side...
"Your Highness... Guoba is... not going to be easy to deal with now..."
"Paimon" looked gravely in the direction of the "Guoba" and spoke:
"The concentration of eerie power in him now—rough estimate—it's increased by over a hundredfold compared to before..."
Lumine nodded.
She looked at "Guoba" and could also feel a powerful force radiating from him...
"Su Yuan, just as you said... negative emotions can also amplify the eerie power..."
"I killed Xiangling, and it seems Guoba... went berserk because of it..."
As she spoke, Lumine slowly walked toward "Guoba" and said:
"That's fine. The Xiangling from just now was still a bit too weak..."
"Back at the Dragon-Queller Tree, if the eerie Jiang Xue hadn't been able to defeat the eerie Morax, I was already planning to step in..."
"Come, Guoba. Let me see just how powerful this eerie force can be!"
The next moment, Guoba spewed out a torrent of blazing, eerie flames from his mouth!
If one were to make a comparison—his previous fire breath was like a lighter...
But now, it was like the blast from a rocket launch!
They weren't even on the same level!
And yet, even in the face of this, there wasn't a trace of panic on Lumine's face...
In fact... was that a hint of excitement?
She gathered energy in her hand and swung her sword vertically.
Instantly, a powerful wave of sword energy, formed from Abyssal power, sliced Guoba's eerie flames cleanly down the middle!
The wave of sword energy surged forward with an unstoppable force—Guoba's flames couldn't resist it in the slightest!
Until finally, Guoba himself was sliced cleanly in two...
"Eerie power... so this is all it amounts to?"
Lumine spoke as she sheathed her sword, letting out a quiet sigh.
Su Yuan didn't know what to say...
So this was Lumine's true strength... this was the power of the Abyss...
Back then, Dottore must have already recognized Lumine's true identity—he knew how powerful she was.
That's why he didn't bother engaging further and simply retreated...
"Su Yuan, judging by your expression... do you think what I did was cruel?"
Lumine walked over to Su Yuan's side and spoke slowly:
"You don't need to save everyone..."
"The only ones you truly need to protect... are your family."
"Everyone else doesn't matter."
"The more you care about someone, the more it hurts... the more unbearable it becomes when you have to part."
"The fastest way to eliminate the eerie power is simple—whoever is tainted by it, kill them."
"No! That's not right!"
Su Yuan couldn't accept Lumine's viewpoint and shouted:
"If we have the power to save others, why not try to save them?"
"This black-and-white approach of yours is completely unacceptable!"
As he spoke, Su Yuan pulled out the small knife he always carried and aimed it at his heart, ready to stab himself!
But Lumine would never let him get his way.
She immediately grabbed his hand and snatched the knife away from him!
Still unwilling to give up, Su Yuan glanced at the boiling oil pot nearby and, without hesitation, sprinted toward it—trying to throw himself in!
But Lumine merely swept her leg lightly at his ankle, and Su Yuan was tripped to the ground...
"I told you—don't even think about killing yourself in front of me…"
"Besides, with how you're acting now, you've pretty much confirmed it for me—you do have the ability to rewind after death."
Lumine grabbed Su Yuan by the collar, locking eyes with him as she spoke sternly:
"Su Yuan, you have to learn to accept partings. You have to learn to live with regret..."
"This mindset of trying to save everyone—it doesn't work!"
"There's no such thing as a perfect ending in this world!"
"If you keep pushing forward blindly, all you'll do is repeat the same mistakes!"
Looking into Lumine's serious gaze, Su Yuan suddenly had a strange feeling—had he seen her somewhere before?
But it wasn't the feeling of recognizing her from when he played the game…
It felt like he and Lumine had truly, physically met in real life before—and maybe more than once…
Su Yuan shut his eyes tightly, a deep frown forming as a splitting headache hit him…
Seeing this, Lumine released her grip and let Su Yuan slide down to sit against the wall.
After a long while, once the pain had slightly eased, Su Yuan looked up at Lumine and asked in a trembling voice:
"Lumine... have we... met somewhere a long time ago?"
"A long time ago? You're overthinking it. Yesterday was the first time we met," Lumine replied calmly.
Su Yuan nodded.
Yeah... that made sense.
He'd only been in this world for a few days.
How could he possibly have met Lumine a long time ago?
Lumine had already been active in Teyvat for several hundred years…
Could this be what the rule inscribed on the palm of his right hand had warned about—that while his memory might be good, memory itself isn't always reliable?
Just then, footsteps echoed from outside, and the back door of Wanmin Restaurant's kitchen was opened from the outside…
An old figure appeared at the doorway—it was Madame Ping.
Madame Ping walked in and took a look at the scene before her: Xiangling, decapitated and lying in a pool of blood, and Guoba, split cleanly in half…
"Su Yuan… Traveler…"
Madame Ping looked at the two of them and slowly spoke:
"Can you tell me… what exactly happened here?"
---------------
Exclusive access : 261ch on paetron
Join now : patreon*com/DeCakraWnloverz