Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

"Sever its head! We'll drink it with today!" Fa Nan shouted.

"Kill!" The elite troops charged forward across the sea as if it were flat land!

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Fa Nan will become my aunt's woman.

Oser's eight heads gripped the sand tightly, its long necks serving as its power source as it crawled ashore. Despite being as large as the island itself, its crawling posture was still agile, like that of a sea spider.

"Ausel." A dozen nautical miles away from Lonely Cloud Pavilion, the treasure ship was setting up its cannons, and a cool lolita girl dressed in a gorgeous Lolita dress and white stockings was repeating this name.

"That's...that's..." The sailors on the treasure ship were speechless.

"The Demon God Oser, like Inazuma's Orobas, is one of the countless contenders for the seven crowns," the general said calmly. "It has the appearance and power of a god, but it was just one step away from winning the heart of a god. However, there are only seven thrones. Countless heroes of that era had to sink with their ambitions and regrets. It wasn't that it wasn't good enough, powerful enough, or wise enough, but that your Rock King Emperor is better, more powerful, and wiser than it."

"Light the beacon!" the first mate ordered. "The nearest sea beacon tower is only about seventy nautical miles away; it should be visible in the dark!"

"Yes!"

"Your sister...brother, His Highness Liang?" The first mate suppressed his trembling and asked in a low voice.

The treasure ship is currently safe, but their safety is useless; the person with the most special identity is still in the heart of the war. They naturally trust General Fanan's power, but if the opponent is a demon god… that's a being beyond the limits of human understanding. Even the mighty immortal yakshas can't protect themselves, let alone Shen Liang.

The young general did not answer. The next moment, she opened the parasol that Shen Liang had given her, and her pretty little leather shoes lightly stepped onto the water, heading towards the direction of Guyun Pavilion.

--------

Oser was raging. Its enormous body bobbed in the ocean, appearing as a massive, monstrous creature, like a slippery mollusk resembling a squid or an octopus. But its skin was actually incredibly rough, like whale skin, and its tentacle-like neck actually contained bones, though they appeared thin and bony due to its emaciated state.

That's because it was sealed at the bottom of the sea for over a thousand years. When it was sealed, Fanan was still a young Yaksha who fought alongside the Geo Archon. Now, although Fanan still has the face of a beautiful young girl, she is one of the most senior beings in Liyue. In public, she is even introduced as "Grandma Fanan".

Yet, though emaciated, it is incredibly swift. The sheer power of its massive limbs is awe-inspiring. Where it climbs, the ground caves in and rocks crumble. When its nine heads bite into a mountainside in an attempt to reach an island, it can even tear down mountains. No one dares to imagine what this thing would look like emerging from the sea; its rampage would surely destroy the entire Liyue Harbor.

The waves surged, tens of thousands of tons of water crashing onto the main island, causing the land to tremble and the earth to split. Then came schools of deep-sea fish and shrimp, along with various marine creatures lurking on Osel's body, which were flung out of the waterspout like fish and landed on the islanders. These were Osel's food on the seabed, or rather, they were each other's prey. These marine creatures and shrimp usually lived in the crevices of Osel's skin, sucking his bodily fluids and breath, and occasionally being sucked into his mouth in large quantities along with the water currents.

Over the past thousand years, a complete ecosystem has formed around Oser. At the moment of its fury, food has also arrived on land from the deep sea. Animals that dare to eat the flesh and blood of the demon god are equally fierce, domineering, and bloodthirsty. When they land on people, they bite them as well. The sailors and the Ba family screamed and jumped up in pain, pulling the fish and shrimp off their bodies. If you look closely, even the small and harmless land shells have sharp, protruding teeth and tongues.

Shen Liang looked up at the storm. The deep-sea creatures seemed to deliberately avoid him when they landed, and even the shellfish that had no control over their bodies bounced off him as if they were being branded with a hot iron. So his snow-white straitjacket and long hair remained spotless, so clean that he didn't look like someone in the heart of a war.

But perhaps it was precisely because he was so special in the midst of the chaos, so special that he stood out too much, that some of the hidden bandits quietly raised their crossbows and shot at the boy who was gazing longingly at the trolls.

"Shh!"

A faint whooshing sound reached Shen Liang's ears as a delicate, fair hand easily caught the arrow and tossed it to the ground.

A beautiful white parasol sheltered Shen Liang from the torrential rain. Shen Liang turned her head, and the first thing she saw was a familiar deep purple hair. She instinctively smiled and said, "Mom, what... is my little sister?"

His tone was surprisingly disappointed.

The general gave him a cold glance and said nothing more. Perhaps it was because Lei Dianzhen was delicate and afraid of the sun, so she liked to carry an umbrella with her to shield herself from the sun, while Shen Liang was already used to staying under his mother's umbrella, that his first reaction was to think of Lei Dianzhen.

Perhaps the reason he deliberately included an umbrella in the outfit he put together for this doll girl was because of Raiden Shin.

"Finally, you've come to protect me." Shen Liang put his arm around his sister's shoulder, using her for support as he leaned against her, and said lazily, "You know your older brother isn't much of a fighter, thank goodness Mom had the foresight... How come we encountered such a major crisis on our first day out? Isn't Liyue supposed to be prosperous and powerful? Why does it feel more dangerous than Inazuma?"

The general ignored his brother's complaints and calmly said, "Aren't we going to rescue them?"

"You know about my health problems, right? You want me to go? I'm probably not even as useful as those Thousand Rock Army soldiers." Shen Liang chuckled as he rubbed his sister's face, but after five seconds, the general coldly waved his hand away, stopping him from rubbing her face.

"Brother, don't you like Fa Nan anymore?"

"what?"

“She is very good-looking and has a gentle personality. Given your habits, you would usually want to add such a beautiful and gentle older woman to your harem.” The general paused and then said, “‘Harem’ does not refer to the inner palace of the castle tower. In this case, it means a small group formed by multiple women who are in love with the same man.”

"A very accurate description." Shen Liang blinked. "But what does it have to do with me?"

"From what I can see, my brother has basically completed the act of taking in great demons like Saigu and Chiyo in accordance with this definition. And based on my brother's actions, Fanan is also one of the targets you are currently taking in."

"What do you mean by behavioral deduction?! Sister Fanan and I are just ordinary friends, not even good friends."

"My brother and the leaders of the Fox Clan, Tengu, and Oni Clan were just ordinary friends at first," the general said calmly.

"Hey, that's slander!"

"This is a summary of historical patterns. In the end, all the girls of this type around you will go down the same path."

Shen Liang frowned, deep in thought, then clapped his hands in sudden realization: "You mean Sister Fanan will also become my aunt's woman!"

A crack appeared in the doll-like girl's usually placid expression. She then looked away expressionlessly, clenching her small fists.

--------

The surging water flow swirled into the shape of a blade, then was frozen into a sharp giant sword by the ice-elemental divine eye of its subordinate, and fell from the sky under the control of Fanan! It was about to sever one of Oser's heads in two!

boom!

As the ice blade, dozens of meters wide, crashed down, Osel's head swung violently, forcing everyone on the sea surface back into the distance.

Fanan raised several water platforms in succession to support his comrades, then confirmed the effectiveness of the attack. At this moment, thick, whitish blood was flowing from Oser's head, like fat, but it was definitely blood.

It had some effect, but not much; clearly, the attack hadn't destroyed a single head. The severely wounded head was still emitting a whale-like wail, though its tone was no longer synchronized with the other heads.

—The damage is too low!

This wasn't the first time Vanan had unleashed an ice-blade attack. Despite Oser's massive size and relatively slow movement, he remained easy to aim at. Vanan and his sailors continued attacking the same head, reasoning that it was better to cut off one finger than to injure all ten. However, after so many rounds of attacks, the head was only severely wounded, not destroyed.

The sheer strength of their physical bodies is astonishing.

Fa Nan dodged a head's bite and quickly thought through the fierce battle.

It is, after all, a demon god; suppression may severely weaken its power, but it will not severely weaken its physical body. Just as it has yet to truly summon a targeted water-control attack, only creating surging waves and waterspouts.

It may no longer have the power to control the sea, relying only on its terrifying brute force and its body capable of overturning islands.

If that's the case, then it can't be considered a complete demon god; it's just an overly resilient and enormous monster. Perhaps it hasn't been awakened long enough, and its bodily functions haven't recovered yet. This might be the only chance to kill it... As time passes and Oser's power gradually returns, then there will be no need to fight. Only the Rock King Emperor himself can destroy it.

How do we break through their defenses?

Fa Nan gritted his teeth and suddenly shouted, "Ice type! Fire type! Get close to me!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than an Oser's head appeared, sweeping across the sea. Vanan leaped up and landed on Oser's long neck, its claws digging into its skin to secure itself.

Perhaps because the skin was too rough and thick, Osel didn't even notice her position.

"Ausel's resistance to physical attacks is too high! Gather our strength and use extreme cold to deal with him!" Fanan shouted.

"Extreme cold? It's so big, no matter how much power we use with our Eye of God, we can't freeze it!" The ice-type sailor shouted back, "It would take at least ten, no, a hundred ice-type primordial gods to freeze its entire body for even a second! And that would only be on the surface of the water; its body underwater wouldn't be frozen! It's too big!"

“I know the power of the Eye of God is not enough, and Vanan is not stupid!” Miss Water Yaksha gritted her teeth, but still gave the order in an orderly manner, “We don’t need the Eye of God, nor do we need to freeze the whole body. We only need to freeze the most vulnerable point on the neck. But one second is not enough. One second will not cause too much damage.”

"General Fanan! It can only freeze for a second at most! It can break through the ice with just a twist!"

“Shut up and listen to me! I didn’t mention the Eye of God. This isn’t the era of the ignorant war between demons and gods anymore. We need to use your human knowledge and technology! I know quite a few alchemists at the shipyard. There’s something called dry ice. We use it in large quantities for low-temperature antifreeze tests on ships and dinghies. This substance can vaporize quickly and cool down instantly. It was originally used to protect large, long-distance ships from fire.” Vanan spoke quickly. “Transport the dry ice over here and spray it on its neck. Right now, the sea is full of water, which can freeze quickly. And that stuff is much colder than ice! It might even freeze it!”

The sailors' eyes lit up, and some immediately left the battlefield to steer speedboats to notify the treasure ship. Soon, the treasure ship set sail, and many sailors could be seen carrying sealed dry ice storage boxes to its location.

"They actually know how to use chemical weapons. The Liyue people's understanding of war is nothing like Inazuma's outdated views." Mistelin was somewhat surprised.

【Is Inazuma outdated?】 Shen Liang was displeased and immediately questioned his mother.

"Any army that only relies on individual strength is utterly useless. Inazuma-no-hime, without your mother and your sister Kage, what war strategy do you have left?" Mistelin said calmly. "As things stand, the Shogunate army would be completely powerless against a Sen'iwa army like this."

[War is about the strongest fighters. Are Inazuma's strongest fighters weak? Two Thunder Gods, terrifyingly powerful. Even the Serpent God Orobas was easily defeated by Shadow Sister. Hmm... Sister Hato, think about it, those Sea Gods are at odds with the Shogunate because of this, but even if they're at odds, didn't they still become Inazuma's people? That's war.]

[Is that so? Then why couldn't the shogunate take control of Umijima? Even now, Hachimanjima is frequently plagued by conflict and unrest. So why couldn't the shogunate army conquer Umijima, a mere island without even a god?]

Because Sister Ying didn't make a move.

[Is she not taking action, or is she unable to take action?] Mistelin smiled broadly. [Pandora, war is for population, land, and wealth. If the gods destroy everything, then what is the point of war?]

Shen Liang was taken aback.

"War isn't a game between gods, nor is it about destroying your ignorant and reckless words just because I can destroy you. If that were the case, then Earth's civilization should have destroyed the entire world and left itself alone when it developed the first nuclear bomb. Why didn't they do that?" Mistelin tapped his head. "Honey, look at the Liyue people. This is the resilience that the Teyvat civilization should have."

Shen Liang immediately turned his gaze to Ausel.

Once a large quantity of dry ice arrived, the sailors, carrying boxes, stepped onto the wooden planks and continued surfing towards Osel.

Even on the turbulent sea, the Thousand Rock Army maintained its orderly formation, with sailors carrying crates not needing to worry about their position. The aquatic primal beings on the shore controlled the water flow to help them evade Oser's attacks, and they even tied their shoes to planks to stabilize themselves.

The price of maintaining their stable stance was the inconvenience of dodging Oser's lunges and sweeping attacks. However, the sailors remained fearless, their complete trust in their comrades ensuring their survival. The aquatic Genshin Impacts did not disappoint them, displaying exquisite skill from beginning to end, never letting their guard down even when manipulating the water element in front of Oser was exhausting.

Immediately afterwards, a sailor climbed onto Osel's neck and caught the dry ice storage box that his teammate had thrown with all his might.

"Watch out!" Vanan also received a box and shouted to the sailor, "Dry ice is extremely cold. It would be terrifying if this amount of dry ice were to vaporize completely. Do not hesitate, jump into the sea immediately before smashing the box and dive to the bottom to ensure you don't get frostbite!"

"Understood!" the sailor replied firmly.

"Don't even think about smashing the box on Ausel. Just throw it anywhere. It doesn't matter if the dry ice doesn't completely evaporate or if it falls. The important thing is to survive!" Fanan added. "Dry ice evaporates very quickly, so you must get out of the way the moment it hits! Remember that!"

The sailor smiled shyly: "General Fanan is really... wasting time lecturing at a time like this."

"That's to save your life! Others can't even have a few extra words with our general, so you should be grateful for his concern!" a sailor laughed.

"We will not fail in our mission!" The sailor glanced furtively at Vanan, then shouted as if encouraged.

Every sailor in Liyue envies the Vanang forces, despite always having to carry out the most dangerous missions and frequently venturing to the open sea. But the Vanang navy is the most elite navy; aside from pay and subsidies, even the Vanang ships are the best in the entire army, and the soldiers living on board can eat meat and vegetables for every meal.

But more importantly, it was her personal charm. As the renowned General Luo Juan, Fa Nan was far more considerate of others than any other commander. Perhaps because she was a woman, Fa Nan's army had a stronger sense of camaraderie; her generals always led from the front, risking their lives, and her soldiers were fearless. Fa Nan possessed a quality few could match: in peacetime, she was a quiet and gentle beauty. Having such a beauty as a commander in the army was a great privilege, even just to look at her was a pleasure; where else could you find such a pleasing presence?

These were all spirited young men, and countless soldiers were captivated by the gentle beauty of Fa Nan, charging into battle and risking their lives for her, sometimes driven by both patriotism and personal affection. In short, like an idol or mascot in the army, Fa Nan was more than just a general in their hearts.

Fanan nodded, then silently counted down in her mind, retreating while raising an iron spear that had been thrown at her. When the countdown ended, she threw the spear, shattering the dry ice storage box, and then fled into the sea.

"…………one!"

As the astonishing white fog suddenly surged, all the soldiers on the shore who were unable to participate in the naval battle turned their gazes in that direction.