Genshin Impact: The Beginning of the Wind

"Simply regaining authority is not worthwhile for Sky Isles, especially after losing the angels who taught mortals. Mortals need a new leader and protector."

"After discovering that the Daedric Princes had been implanted with the instinct of 'loving others' and could indeed serve as a tool to guide mortals once again, the Seven Rulers of the Mortal Realm were born in combination with the Seven Dragon Kings who once suppressed Teyvat."

After Zhong Li finished speaking in a calm tone, he picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip of the slightly bitter tea. He needed to wait for Su Feng to catch his breath, since receiving so much information in a short period of time was not an easy task for anyone.

"In other words, the essence of the Demon God War is that Sky Island is reclaiming its own power. But if that's the case, why are so many demon gods only banished or sealed away? Isn't that a huge loss for Sky Island?"

After pondering for a while, Su Feng discovered something he couldn't understand, but Zhong Li simply shook his head at the question.

"Because those dead demon gods are the most important; as for the others..."

Even among demons and gods, there are differences!

Zhongli's answer was simple and quite convincing. After recalling the differences between Zhongli and the other demon gods, Su Feng nodded seriously.

This is indeed a reason. Compared to the truly powerful ones, it wouldn't be unfair to say that most of the demon gods are just "filler." And according to Zhongli, the most important part has obviously been taken back, which is enough for Sky Island now.

After all, the Sky Isle, now riddled with holes, can never completely control Teyvat as it once did.

In this situation, it's not a big deal that a demon god who only wields a little insignificant power is simply left to roam the mortal world.

As for the victors in the Demon God War... surely no one still believes that any of the first generation of Earthly Rulers really didn't have close ties with Sky Island?

The Demon God War was less about vying for the seven ruling positions and more about the seven rulers, under the arrangement of Sky Island, reclaiming necessary authority; everything else was not so important.

This was very evident in the past Sumeru—the Great Tree King, who was appointed as the Grass God, was not good at fighting. So the Red King from Sky Island, together with the Flower King, not only wiped out the entire Sumeru on the spot, but also staged a three-king alliance. Then the position of Grass God fell to the Great Tree King, who was the incarnation of the World Tree.

Tsk, the inside story and the guaranteed admission are almost out in the open now.

"If this is the cause of the war between demons and gods, then what is the Heart of God...?"

After understanding what the Demon God War was all about, Su Feng refocused his attention on the Heart of God. As a prize for the seven gods' victory, even if the seven gods had already decided on it before the Demon God War began, the Heart of God should not be just an ornament, right?

"One of the functions of the Heart of God is to absorb and piece together authority. Many of the demons killed and sealed during the Demon War still have a large number of fragments of authority scattered throughout Teyvat. The greatest function of the Heart of God is to draw on and mobilize the faith of mortals to transform it into power to reabsorb and piece together these fragments of authority."

"The pieced-together fragmented authority, combined with the seven elemental authority reserved in the heart of God, can greatly assist Sky Island in controlling and managing the entire world."

Zhongli bluntly stated the most important function of the Heart of God: as the tentacles left in the mortal world by Sky Island, the Heart of God does indeed contain authority and power, which can also play a certain role for the rulers of the mortal world!

Of course, the kind of authority contained in the heart of a god depends on the situation. As Liyue was once a gathering place for many demon gods, because so many demon gods were dealt with here, Zhongli's heart of a god contains the most authority among the seven.

Of the many powers and titles that Zhongli once possessed, aside from those fabricated by mortals, most relied on the authority within the hearts of gods.

Therefore, losing the Heart of God is indeed a weakening factor for Zhongli, who is very good at using this thing—it's been reduced from 10,001 to 10,000!

"So the one who sought to seize the Heart of God at the end of winter did so in order to usurp the authority that still remained in the mortal world?"

"Unifying the seven elements and numerous powers... Does it want to overthrow Sky Island or become just another Sky Island?"

At that moment, Su Feng seemed to have guessed what the Empress of Winter wanted to do.

Chapter Three: The God of Sumeru

The Heart of God contains immense power and authority. This power may not mean much to beings like Zhongli or Wendy, but it is not a power that ordinary gods can easily relinquish.

In particular, this power even includes a portion of the authority to control the seven elements of the mortal world.

Queen Winter was well aware of this, and the first step in her grand plan was to seize all seven Hearts of God and consolidate enough authority.

After unifying all the hearts of the gods, the Winter Queen might even have the possibility of touching the primordial.

Even if he falls short in mastering the mortal realm, he should still be able to compare with the former Four Shadows, right?

This is an irresistible temptation for the Winter Queen, who is already almost desperate about Sky Isles and Teyvat.

In this situation, if the power within the heart of God could be safely extracted and utilized, then becoming a god through this would not be impossible.

So, does that skirmisher guy actually have a good chance of succeeding?

But it seems that guy has become a test subject again? A test subject used to experiment on how to extract the power and authority from the Heart of God?

This guy is probably going to be betrayed again.

Su Feng quickly thought of the stragglers who had previously thrown out invitations and harsh words in front of him, but Su Feng still didn't pay much attention to them.

After all, what does it matter to him how unlucky the stragglers end up?

"That's all I can tell you about the Heart of God. As for Mount Sumeru and its deities..."

After revealing all the secrets he could, Zhongli moved on to the next topic, but this time he hesitated, which was unusual for him.

"I do know something about the former Great Tree King. He was a very wise being, and that wisdom was definitely not due to his being an incarnation of the World Tree."

When the Great Tree King was mentioned, Zhongli couldn't help but show his admiration. In fact, anyone who had seen the real Great Tree King, or even a god, would admire his wisdom and gentleness.

It should be noted that even during the war between demons, very few demons wanted to be enemies with each other, which alone is enough to demonstrate their wisdom and nobility.

"But the current Little Lucky Grass King is not the grass god I am familiar with. Compared to the Great Tree King, this god who was brought back from the battlefield is too young and weak."

"They were so weak that they willingly allowed themselves to be imprisoned by mortals."

When the current Grass God was mentioned, Zhongli couldn't help but frown, seemingly not entirely satisfied with the current Grass God.

"There's nothing we can do about it. The price the Great Tree King paid five hundred years ago to resolve those calamities was far too high. The newly born Grass God neither inherited enough power nor enough wisdom from it."

"Even at the very beginning, the Little Auspicious Grass King was no different from a mortal child—which demon god has ever experienced this?"

"I don't think it's feasible to let a child like this manage a huge country."

Wendy, on the contrary, spoke up to defend the newly born Grass God.

Moreover, what he said was true. As the sole descendant of the Great Tree King, the Little Lucky Grass King's situation was truly unique. At the beginning, apart from that little bit of divine power, she was no different from a child.

This is something that almost no demon god has ever experienced.

"Moreover, we all know that mortals cannot restrain gods. The mortals of the Order of the Church believe that they have restrained the gods, but in reality, it is just one child indulging another child."

"She still needs to learn, and as a young woman, she can only endure hardship, make sacrifices, and learn from suffering."

Wendy's voice was slightly low, and after he finished speaking, the three of them fell into silence.

Becoming a god is no easy feat, especially in Teyvat today, where carrying a nation through a world on the brink of destruction is incredibly difficult.

What's worse is that the current Little Lucky Grass King is far too young and weak; she... may not have much time left.

Fortunately, although Venti and Zhongli had different opinions on the Little Lucky Grass King, they both chose to wait and see for the time being. Unless a disaster that the Little Lucky Grass King could not handle and could endanger the entire Teyvat appeared in Sumeru, they would never interfere in other matters of governance.

This, to some extent, did give the Little Lucky Grass King the most time.

After a long silence, Su Feng finally spoke again.

"If I go to Sumeru, I can't just go directly to the gods of the country like I did in the other countries. I feel like that would cause a lot of conflict. After all, it's always good to be wary of a strange and powerful being suddenly entering your country, right?"

"Moreover, the situation in Sumeru seems to be quite complicated right now?"

"Does the Grass God have no followers he can command? Or are there any extraordinary beings that have a significant influence on Sumeru?"

Su Feng didn't care about the difference in ideas between Zhongli and Wendy—even mortals might have different ideas, so it was even more true for the gods who symbolized the seven elements.

Anyway, these two have been together for a long time, so as long as they don't fight, it doesn't matter.

Su Feng was more concerned about his upcoming journey to Sumeru, especially since he was worried that he might accidentally have a huge conflict with the current Grass God, just like when he went to Inazuma last time.

However, we definitely shouldn't have much contact with the mortals of Sumeru now. After all, the fact that they can pull off such a lousy job as imprisoning gods—even if they think they've succeeded—already shows that these guys are absolutely not to be trusted.

Moreover, scholars... just thinking about it makes it clear that those who can reach the pinnacle among countless scholars and become great sages must at least be academic fanatics. Su Feng doesn't think such beings are easy to communicate with.

Who knows what outrageous research projects those guys are working on behind the scenes?

Especially since Su Feng doesn't have any degree certificates or anything like that, he's probably considered completely illiterate in the other party's eyes.

Then, considering that the soldiers were so confident in saying they could ascend to godhood in Sumeru... it would be a miracle if the Sumeru Order Academy wasn't involved.

"Your idea is a bit too much—the current Grass God is just a child, and he was basically locked up as soon as he opened his eyes. How could he possibly have any trustworthy familiars under such circumstances?"

"Some of the Great Tree King's retinues survived, but even I can't find them after the great catastrophe five hundred years later. Although we can still occasionally see traces of them in the forest of Sumeru, it's not easy to encounter them in the vast forest of Sumeru."

Wendy simply shrugged off Su Feng's question. The problem with Sumeru was quite complicated. The disaster had broken out too quickly and was too severe. As the first kingdom to be hit, Sumeru suffered terrible losses, and the Great Tree King paid an unimaginable price.

If the Great Tree King had truly left behind one or two reliable followers, would such an absurd thing as the Little Lucky Grass King being imprisoned by mortals have happened?

If that were the case, those sages would have had their heads twisted off long ago!

"Alright, then it seems I'll have to rely on myself for the rest of my journey through Sumeru? If that's the case, then do you two have any advice for me?"

Having learned most of what he wanted to know, Su Feng finally decided to go to Xumi first—he'd put the Abyss Palace aside for now; his intuition told him that now was not the time to go there.

Su Feng had a lot of faith in his intuition—after all, sometimes his intuition wasn't necessarily true intuition.

"For you now, there's probably not much to avoid about Sumeru anymore. Although there are some taboos there, it shouldn't matter to you."

After glancing at Wendy beside him, Zhongli gave an affirmative answer, and Su Feng nodded seriously upon receiving it.

With this answer, Su Feng felt much more at ease.

Chapter 4: I was immediately thrust into a quest right after entering Sumeru.

Su Feng did not stay in Liyue for long. After obtaining the information he wanted, he quickly set off for Sumeru.

However, this time, in order to avoid fighting with the Little Auspicious Grass King as soon as he arrived in Sumeru, Su Feng did not choose to fly high in the sky in a grand manner as before.

This time, he walked on the ground at a 'normal' pace, just like a normal person.

Perhaps it was because he was used to coming and going like the wind, and the people he knew and associated with were all at least skilled Eye of Gods, so Su Feng's 'normal speed' allowed him to cross half of Liyue and appear in the rainforest of Sumeru in just half a day.

As soon as Su Feng stepped out of the mountain leading to Mount Sumeru, the vast rainforest pressed itself against his face almost in the blink of an eye.

Even Su Feng, who usually doesn't pay much attention to changes in his surroundings, was momentarily stunned.

He couldn't help but look behind him at the towering abyss of rock, which, if not barren, was practically devoid of vegetation, and then at the rainforest in front of him, which was completely covered by vegetation.

"Is the difference really that big?"

"While it's true that one is a grass god and the other a rock god, is it really necessary for the difference in their territories to be so obvious and clear-cut?"

After looking at it carefully for a while, Su Feng couldn't help but make a couple of comments.

However, he didn't delve too deeply into the matter. If the changes in the environment hadn't been so drastic, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

However, this also made him, who had never seen such a lush forest before, begin to carefully appreciate this beautiful scenery he had never seen before.

Unfortunately, Su Feng soon realized that an overly lush rainforest not only meant beauty, but also likely a huge amount of trouble and a rather terrible environment—at least when Su Feng was suddenly numb by mosquitoes, rodents, and even mushrooms that suddenly appeared, ready to teach him a lesson.

This rainforest is so vibrant! Anyone without experience or strength who ventures in alone is likely to suffer greatly or even lose their life here!