Genshin Impact: The Beginning of the Wind

She seemed genuinely frightened by Lilupal, and Paimon and Luminous couldn't help but chuckle at Slusa's appearance.

"That's a magic bottle that sealed the spirit, Silsa, it's really rude of you to say that."

However, at that moment, a slightly reprimanding voice suddenly interrupted Silsa, and then everyone saw a flower spirit that looked older fly out from somewhere and start hitting the frightened Silsa with its wings.

“Zhenling is also a powerful being in the legend of Sumeru, and can even be said to be our sister—you used a bottle to describe this senior, which is like being described as a fiery red vulture, which is quite rude.”

"Apologize quickly, otherwise if your senior wants to teach you a lesson, I won't be able to help you."

The flower spirit that immediately taught the arrogant Sluza a good lesson was naturally only one – Zulwan, the original flower spirit.

This powerful flower spirit, who once participated in the fight against the abyss calamity five hundred years ago, is not comparable to someone like Slusa, who gets easily fooled and loses her bearings.

Although she had never met Zhenling before, it was impossible for her to say that she had no understanding of Zhenling, who originated from the Flower Goddess. After all, the Flower Spirit could be considered a common companion of the Flower Goddess, the Water Goddess, and the Grass Goddess.

Although the Flower Spirit, created by combining the powers of the three gods, has appeared much earlier than the other attendants of these three gods, this does not mean that the Flower Spirit is weak, nor does it mean that the Flower Spirit is truly ignorant.

Moreover, the slight glimpse of the Flower Goddess's power that Lilupal accidentally revealed was keenly detected by Zulwan.

"Huh? Is that so? Does that mean I have to call her 'older sister' or 'senior'?"

"Is she older than Senior Zurwan?"

However, Slusa, who had been reprimanded, stared wide-eyed at Zulwan beside her and raised her doubts.

Every flower spirit holds this original flower spirit in high esteem, and it was under her leadership that the flower spirits were able to hold the calamity back. So even the extremely chuunibyou-ish Slusa only felt helpless and annoyed by Zulwan's seemingly endless lecturing when facing him.

"Of course, Zhenling was once a follower of the Flower Goddess. The years we have lived are but a drop in the ocean compared to her. Moreover, the one here now is probably no ordinary Zhenling."

"Or perhaps the divine bird Seymourne originally came from the goddess of flowers... Do you still remember what I taught you?"

While that's true, Ying could sense Zulwan's wariness of Lirupal from his seemingly indifferent expression—and Ying was quite certain that this wariness wasn't just about a sudden stranger.

It seems that Lilupal has quite a few secrets!

After realizing this, Ying's face showed a thoughtful expression.

Although she has signed a contract with Lilupal, Ying's understanding of the town spirit who follows her is still quite limited.

After realizing that Zulwan's attitude toward Lilupar was not so clear, Ying temporarily gave up the idea of ​​mediating, but she still leaned slightly toward Lilupar to express her attitude.

Even if Lilupal has some secrets she doesn't know, Ying, who has been getting along very well with Lilupal recently, doesn't intend to delve into it.

After all, who doesn't have secrets? Or rather, Ying has far more secrets than Lilupal!

“My master, you don’t need to care too much about this… Flower Spirit’s hostility, because her vigilance towards me is correct, or rather, after I plunged the entire city of Juer into the abyss, anyone’s vigilance and wariness towards me is correct.”

“I am not a good person. If it weren’t for the former mistress giving me her last bit of light, and if it weren’t for the noble winged beings entrusting me with a mission and a new destiny that is still unclear, then I would probably have already perished along with the city of Gur, which was recently reduced to dust by the power of the winged beings.”

Lilupal was unconcerned about Zulwan's wariness; instead, she was more grateful for Ying's silent protection of her. However, now was not the time for her new master to shield her from malice.

As someone whose hands are stained with sin and blood, it's time for her to put on a show.

After all, she wouldn't let her new master clash with these flower spirits for her sake.

Then, the brilliant moonlight gradually flowed out from the silver bottle, and as the moonlight fell, a stunningly beautiful figure that was almost impossible to look away from gradually emerged from the moonlight.

Soon, the beautiful, otherworldly woman looked at Hua Ling with her pure silver eyes and smiled slightly. Faced with this smile that could be described as breathtakingly beautiful, even Paimon was a little confused.

"Daughters of the Flower Goddess, continuation of the divine bird Seymour... Flower Spirits! Your purity and nobility are indeed enough to perpetuate their pride."

The meeting between Hua Ling and Zhen Ling was not pleasant at first. Although both could be considered remnants of the Flower Goddess, they were two completely different lives. Compared to the mad and persistent Zhen Ling, perhaps Hua Ling was more in line with the mortal impression of being the 'daughter of the Flower Goddess'?

However, this is not the case. In fact, compared to the manifestation of the 'flower's aura' which was born by unifying the power of the three gods, the spirit that flows out of the power of the flower goddess is more like the essence of the flower goddess in every aspect.

If she weren't so persistent and mad, how could the goddess of flowers have chosen to embark on the path of self-sacrifice after foreseeing so many future possibilities?

However, compared to the spirits who never concealed their true intentions or restrained their goals, the Flower Goddess firmly confined her obsessions, madness, and arrogance to certain directions.

This is a nightmare and fate that no creation from the heavens can escape, and the goddess of flowers is no exception.

"..."

"Arrogance is not a good thing. When facing the abyss, being too arrogant and confident will only lead to failure and death."

Zulwan didn't show much change in expression when facing Lilupal in human form; she simply continued patting Slusa's head as she spoke.

Slusa, who had been slapped on the head many times and felt that she had lost face, wanted to fight back, but Zulwan suppressed her without even looking at her.

"Perhaps. The endless abyss is not something that beings like us can handle. That's why the mistress perished back then..."

"Alright, let's talk about the current situation first—I think you should have some understanding of what's going on here, right?"

"The masters of vegetation and the noble winged beings are ready to act. What we need to do now is to find and deal with those mortals who may have been corrupted by the abyss."

"Once we deal with those guys, the re-infestation of the Abyss can be easily resolved—I don't think you doubt the power of those two, right?"

Instead of playing coy with Zulwan, Lilupal bluntly stated her purpose and mission.

Upon hearing that two noble beings were already waiting in the desert, the seemingly calm and composed Flower Spirit finally showed a change in expression.

"Of course, I have been keeping an eye on the location of the Tu Ni Black Abyss."

“Those who seek the Abyss have never escaped my watchful eye, especially those remnants and traitors from the ancient underground kingdoms that have recently appeared, who are now under my watchful eye.”

Zurwan admitted this without hesitation, while Slusa looked at her blankly upon hearing it.

Is something wrong?

……

Do you think Ying and Lilupal can handle the potential abyss forces?

Naxi Da, who was accompanying Su Feng as he continuously mobilized the power of the earth's veins to accumulate around the desolate desert, hesitated.

Although she didn't know what would happen next, as the embodiment of the world, she had a bad feeling—perhaps a huge disaster was approaching.

Nasida didn't think it was an illusion, or rather, for a strong person who has crossed a certain boundary, there is never such a thing as an illusion.

Any feeling is your own intuition reminding you that something is about to happen.

Therefore, a great battle is bound to take place in the desolate desert, but it is unknown when this battle will begin or who the opposing side will be.

"Don't worry, we won't have any problems."

"I've fought the Abyss more than once or twice, there won't be any problems. Besides, aren't we trying to prevent the worst-case scenario from happening right now?"

Su Feng comforted Naxida in this way as he mobilized the deep earth veins to continuously accumulate elemental power.

The reason the two of them are constantly mobilizing the power of the ley lines by using Nasita's World Tree avatar and the authority of the Grass God is not to create an environment favorable to themselves in any future battles.

In fact, the most important function of these mobilized ley lines is to support a defensive line that can buy some time when necessary—similar to a sand wall, except that Su Feng added a little something extra to better block the power of the abyss and any monsters that might appear.

The most important function of this defensive line is to temporarily block the countless monsters that may appear while Su Feng and Nasita are both delayed, thus buying more time for the mortals to retreat and rebuild the second defensive line.

This also gives other gods who might come to help time to arrive, so they don't have to clean up too many messes.

Just as Su Feng said, this is a backup plan.

Of course, if the Abyss manages to defeat Su Feng and Nasita in one fell swoop, catching the entire Teyvat region off guard, then this backup plan will naturally be useless.

But if such a thing happens, then there's no need to think about it so much. After all, if the other party can take down Su Feng and Nashda in one go, then there are probably very few Teyvats who can stand up to them.

To have such an entity penetrate into the world is truly tantamount to waiting for death.

"Hmm... I know, but I just worry for no reason."

Nasita was certainly aware of this, but that did not stop her from continuing to worry about what was to come.

Hopefully... nothing else goes wrong.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Threat of Death

While Nasita was anxiously manipulating the ley lines with Su Feng and preparing possible defensive lines, Zulwan finally managed to explain the complex relationship between the Flower Spirit and the Town Spirit to everyone, and was able to temporarily put aside her worries about Lilupal.

Even so, she remained vigilant.

After all, what Lilupal had done was far too dangerous and terrifying. More importantly, she couldn't be sure whether Lilupal had been corrupted by the abyss. Under these circumstances, remaining vigilant was naturally the best option.

Lilupal didn't care about this. As long as she did her job well, that was all that mattered. As for Zulwan's wariness of her, that was to be expected.

Although she never regretted what she did, she was also aware of what she had done.

It's only natural that people would suspect us.

The more important thing now is to determine exactly how many of those who have fallen into the abyss are and where they are hiding.

"So you're saying I was scammed?"

Meanwhile, Sluza, who had just confirmed in Zul'wan that the current Debate Group had completely degenerated into lackeys of the Abyss, was completely dumbfounded.

She never imagined that such a thing would happen. If the leader of the Jiaolun Group was a traitor who had fallen into the abyss, then what was she, who had been completely deceived?

Those are naturally fools who can be used as negative examples!

Slusa seems to have already foreseen her future, where she will be mocked by the flower spirits.

"Of course, I've reminded you more than once, but you've never listened to me."

Seeing Slusa's terrified expression, as if the sky had fallen, Zulwan sighed helplessly.

Slusa is just too eager for recognition; otherwise, who could she possibly fool with her deceptive tactics?

And she kept emphasizing the 'destined sacrifice' and such... which means she hasn't made any mistakes all this time, otherwise Zulwan would have stopped Slusa's actions long ago.

Of course, Zurwan also wanted to see some fun, since it would be too hard to pass the time if there was no amusement during the long and boring period.

Just like it is now.

Slusa's expression after learning the truth was quite something, and Zulwan was certain that whenever this matter was brought up again, Slusa would definitely show that same expression.

I've got a long-term source of fun!

Thinking of this, Zurwan felt much happier.

"Ugh! How could this happen!"

Zurwan made no attempt to hide his amusement at her, and although not particularly clever, Slusa could tell that Zurwan wanted to see her make a fool of herself.

"Alright, nothing's wrong yet, right? Besides, I think you can continue to strive towards becoming a hero. After all, you are a flower spirit, and a destined hero—regardless of whether that Xianzhu was lying to you or not, as long as you really become a hero, isn't that enough?"

Perhaps seeing Slusa's embarrassment and sadness, Paimon and Luminous, who had gradually grown fond of the little girl along the way, began to comfort her. However, upon hearing this comfort, Slusa became even more embarrassed and indignant.

"Ugh! Please stop talking!"

Sluza became even more heartbroken after being called a hero, and Zulwan, seeing the guy's reaction, once again revealed a cunning smile and began to add fuel to the fire.