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

This is the most pragmatic academy in Jigong, deeply understanding the importance of methodology. It serves as the cornerstone for Liyue's renowned scholars to cultivate themselves, manage their families, govern the country, and bring peace to the world. Therefore, Shen Liang paid more attention to the recent situation of this academy from the beginning, not because Fa Nan was in this academy.

According to recent news, Shen Liang knows that the submarine cable laid by Inazuma has not yet been officially put into use in Liyue.

He only learned about this yesterday when he took the letter to the telegraph department. It turns out that the telegraph system promoted by Raiden Shin is only relatively mature in Inazuma, while cross-border communication is still in the groundwork stage. In the end, the letters are still delivered by Crane from Jigsaw to Liyue Harbor and then shipped by ship, which may take ten days to half a month to reach the castle tower.

As a precious instrument provided by Inazuma, there are not many telegraph machines currently installed in Liyue. There are five in Liyue Harbor and only twenty-six in the entire Liyue territory, evenly distributed throughout the region. Jigong, as the most densely populated place in the Jueyun Mountains, will naturally also have one installed.

According to the map Shen Liang had seen before, the computer room that the Gewu Academy had built for the telegraph machine was underground. Because the telegraph machine would work continuously once it was started, producing a lot of noise, it had to be used in a soundproof room built underground. Moreover, the telegraph machine itself was not a small thing; on the contrary, it was extremely large, requiring about fifty or sixty square meters of space.

Mistelin said that even the earliest wired telegraph machines on Earth weren't this big, but that was because of the wiring. The logic of the telegraph was to design a representative symbol for each English letter and Arabic numeral; for example, the letter "a" was represented by a dot followed by a horizontal line. The specific broadcasting method was to press and hold the button.

The telegraph operator would input the information, record the dots, and then decipher the message using the corresponding letters. This process, commonly known as encoding and decoding, had a prestigious name: Morse code.

The telegraph machine can transmit thirty letters per minute, which is quite efficient. However, Raiden's telegraph machine has an unavoidable flaw compared to Earth's telegraph machine: the Teyvat common language has far more than 26 letters. Therefore, if it can only transmit thirty letters per minute, the information transmission efficiency is probably less than one-third of that of transmitting the English alphabet on Earth.

Although this was a huge improvement over mail, Raiden was not satisfied with the efficiency, so in a fit of anger she designed a new sending logic for the telegraph machine.

She used 150 wires to represent 150 characters each. The sender applied static electricity to the wires in the order of the text, and the receiver could receive up to 150 characters per minute. In other words, the efficiency was five times that of the former method using a single wire.

But this was actually a much cruder design, costing 150 times more to lay but only five times more efficient. It was extremely costly and unreliable; even the telegraph machine required a large machine room. But even so, Raiden Shin persisted in his plan.

In the enormously costly task of laying the telegraph network, Raiden unusually spent eighteen years communicating with various countries and establishing a communication system. Almost no one understood why she was so persistent in this costly and laborious endeavor, but when the calamity of Kanria broke out, many people vaguely sensed the...possibility of telegraph communication.

"If someone really wanted to destroy the telegraph machine, it would most likely be..." Mistelin said softly.

【Kanria.】

At this moment, Shen Liang and Yushin Seinosuke arrived at the entrance to the underground cellar of the Gewu Academy. According to the map of Jigong that Shen Liang had noted down, the cellar was used for the maintenance of underground facilities. The underground warehouse of the Gewu Academy is generally not open to the public, and the main entrance is guarded by faculty members. If anyone wants to sneak into the computer room, they can only enter the underground through this maintenance passage.

The cellar was unguarded, and to prevent thieves from entering, the teachers of Jigong had placed a protective barrier at its entrance. This barrier, known as a "barrier technique" in Inazuma Onmyodo, made the cellar as strong as an impenetrable fortress. No matter what kind of tigers, leopards, wolves, insects, demons, or monsters, none could get in.

But at this moment, the talisman carved on the well cover has stopped working.

"The cellar has been breached?" Harunosuke realized after a brief moment's thought. "Your Highness, have you noticed something?"

"It was a non-violent intrusion, without damaging the formation," Mistelin noted. "Otherwise, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed; it most likely used the 'Unrestricted Passage' technique."

The Unhindered Talisman is an officially certified "Cultist Item" from Liyue, imbued with Celestial Power to exorcise evil spirits, making it a very powerful Celestial Talisman. However, precisely because of its overwhelming power, the Unhindered Talisman can break through even relatively ordinary formations, such as the Body Protection Formation.

Because the "Talisman of Freedom from Taboos" is essentially a pass for immortals, using it to overcome obstacles won't trigger many alarm mechanisms. Talismans of Freedom from Taboos are extremely rare in the world, almost all in the hands of immortals, so few people are wary of them.

Before the formation could be activated, Shen Liang jumped into the well, where he saw two corpses lying inside.

Since it's a maintenance passage, there might be maintenance workers here, maybe even telegraph machine installers. The boy who came earlier probably didn't expect anyone to be here, so he immediately decided to kill him. This is just the Gewu Academy, not the Elemental Academy where even the teachers and janitors have divine eyes. He's just a simple farmer from a nearby village who came to work.

Shen Liang checked his breathing; he was dead, though his body was still warm. He knew he wasn't wrong; the man and woman had indeed come for the telegraph machine.

He died so easily; if he had arrived just one minute earlier, he might have been saved.

Shen Liang gazed into the pitch-black depths of the cellar. All the kerosene lamps here had been extinguished, making the entire underground area extremely dark. The maintenance passage led to the underground warehouse; the boy was probably searching for the machine room inside.

Shen Liang silently considered his next move.

Someone has already died. All Shen Liang needs to do is take a picture of this scene and then go out to report the situation to Yingda or Fanan, saying that he saw this person acting suspiciously and followed him, witnessing the murder. This way, the Jigong side will definitely take action immediately. After all, he has a high status, and his words will definitely be taken seriously. Then he can step back and let the Liyue people handle it themselves.

but……

Is that really enough? This retreat is just for the sake of getting a commendation; it's as if nothing was actually done.

Are we just going to retreat like this? We have no idea when the other side will make a move. Are we just going to give up the initiative like this? Is it really possible to stop them in time after wasting so much time going back and forth?

[Didn't you say you didn't care about the lives of the Liyue people?]

【I don't really care, but he's going to destroy what Mother has worked so hard for. So many days and nights, Mother has personally done so much to promote the telegraph system; am I really just going to sit idly by?】

【Oh. 】

[Besides, what if the explosion affects others? What if my reasoning is wrong, and the explosion they're talking about isn't a minor incident, and it hurts Sister Rosalin? Even if it only destroys the telegraph machine, I won't be able to communicate with my mother in real time anymore. She'll definitely miss me terribly, secretly crying while bathing in the hot spring.]

【Ah. 】

"You'll protect me, won't you?" Shen Liang asked.

"Of course." Mistelin gave a barely perceptible smile.

Shen Liang took a deep breath and rushed into the pitch-black maintenance passage.

Misterlin watched him, a silent smile on her face. Just as she had expected, Shen Liang, upon seeing the dead school janitor, still chose to rush in without hesitation. That was just the kind of child he was; Misterlin knew him all too well, whether on Earth in the Moth of Flame or now in Teyvat, he was always the same.

He was always so indifferent by nature, a person who could be uncaring to anyone except those he cared about. But he cared about too many people, even friends he had only met once, or countries he had a good impression of.

Mistelin could even guess Shen Liang's thoughts at this moment: I wasn't protecting Jigong or Liyue, who was still practicing the game. I just wanted to protect the telegraph machine. I didn't care about the dead school worker either. Maybe he struggled a bit and exhausted the opponent's strength.

But Mistelin kept watching him, and knew that his usually smiling face had lost its expression ever since he saw the corpse.

Shen Liang never boasted of being a hero, brave, or awe-inspiring. He always considered himself a pure egoist who protected no one but those he wanted to protect.

—But my dear, how does a young person become a hero? It's nothing more than wanting to protect the people and things they love. But the young people who become heroes have an incredibly strong possessiveness in their hearts. They love more and more things, want more and more things, and in the end, the whole world is in their hearts. They can't give up anything, so they draw their swords and protect everything behind them.

—So, baby, you couldn't hide it from the beginning. How could a truly cold-hearted person have such a strong possessive desire?

Mistelin watched Shen Liang's retreating figure.

He once said that he could never leave the castle tower, forever remain an innocent crown prince, and simply lie on Raiden's lap forever, enjoying his mother's tenderness and pampering. But Shen Liang probably didn't realize that the moment he decided to risk his life, he already possessed the "courage of a mortal" that he once despised the most.

----------

"A proximity mine?" Mistelin hissed, "Baby, watch out!"

Shen Liang stopped abruptly. It was pitch black all around; the underground parking garage passage was unlit. He relied on the indicator light on the coffin as a light source to vaguely see where he was going. That indicator light reported Cecilia's physiological condition, such as when her temperature was too high or she needed cleaning. At that moment, he grabbed Harunosuke, and the two of them stopped at the same time.

"Your Highness?" Harunosuke looked at Shen Liang, who was grabbing his belt, with some hesitation. Because Shen Liang was much shorter than him, he could only grab the belt. Being grabbed by the princess of his own country made him feel a little embarrassed.

Shen Liang's fair ear tips twitched slightly. She squatted down and saw a disc-shaped metal device on the ground.

"This world actually has this kind of technology? I'm getting more and more confused. It's already strange that your mother knows about telegraph technology, but this landmine is clearly mass-produced, even more advanced than Inazuma's most advanced firearms... Canria? Canria has this level of technology?" Mistelin took the landmine, manipulated it a few times, and said, "It's resolved, but the enemy has lost control of the landmine and has discovered you."

Shen Liang picked it up and heard the faint "click" sound of the pointer moving inside the landmine disappear. It seemed that the control mechanism inside had been disabled by Misterin. She had always had this ability; although it was hysteria, Misterin could influence the real world. One of her best methods was to use her ability to influence reality while also being able to interweave with real matter, entering the inner layers of matter without damaging the outer layer.

Now that he had been discovered, Shen Liang silently took out a powerful bow from the coffin.

The powerful bow crackled with dazzling lightning, still gleaming brightly even in the thick darkness surrounding it.

This weapon, named "Flying Thunder String Vibration," belongs to Kirigiri Takane, one of the four most powerful mortal warriors in the Inazuma martial arts world.

Shen Liang encountered this mortal warrior during a Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, held annually in Inazuma Castle, was a place where mortals were not allowed to enter the mountains. At that time, Kirigiri Takane was in his early twenties, young and impetuous, and disregarded the shogunate's ban by venturing into the forest barrier, where he happened to meet Shen Liang during the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

It is worth mentioning that Shen Liang was only twelve years old at the time. To celebrate the festival, she wore a plain-colored kimono, her long hair was neatly combed, and she strolled with Ling Shanfang in the gathering of monsters.

That's how he bumped into Kirigiri Takane. At the time, Takane, who was still a strong young man, was captivated by the young and beautiful girl with a delicate and innocent appearance, who looked like a forest elf. Shen Liang's 100% human face made Takane mistake her for a human princess who had been captured by a monster.

When Ling Shanfang saw the misunderstanding and was so angry that he wanted to save Shen Liang, he didn't explain. Instead, he was quite interested in fighting with Wuqie Gaoling. Wuqie Gaoling wagered himself to save Shen Liang and started a duel with Ling Shanfang, but he was unlucky and lost three times. In the end, he could only become Ling Shanfang's servant and disciple.

However, Ling Shanfang admired Wuqie Takane's determination to save the damsel in distress and rewarded him with the treasured bow "Flying Thunder String," bestowed upon him by the general. Takane's first reaction upon receiving the bow was to present it as a gift to the "Your Highness" addressed by these yokai. Shen Liang, amidst Ling Shanfang's hearty laughter, accepted it without understanding why. Then, in front of Takane, Ling Shanfang picked up Shen Liang, drank a mouthful of strong liquor, and kissed Shen Liang, pouring the liquor down his throat, seemingly oblivious to everyone else.

Amidst the shocked and even dumbfounded gazes of Kirigiri Takane, it was only after the surrounding Fox Maiden, who couldn't bear to watch any longer, that the seemingly bright white-haired loli was actually a boy.

There was a reason why there was no update yesterday.

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Chapter 55 You were born a demon god, incapable of accomplishing the deeds of ordinary people.

Of course, after that, Wuqie Gaoling never saw Shen Liang again, and he did not take back the powerful bow bestowed by the emperor, but simply left it with Shen Liang.

Shen Liang was not unskilled in archery. On the contrary, he was a disciple of Lei Yingdian, and learned various martial arts from Hu Qiandai and the Inazuma Army. Even though he had not completed his apprenticeship, he could use them as if they were his own limbs.

He found that his mind was still very clear.

Now that the enemy knows someone is coming, they are most likely lying in ambush ahead. He is not yet prepared to blow up the telegraph machine, and may not even have discovered where the telegraph room is.

The other party was unaware of his identity and strength. Although the other party, as a special agent, should be stronger than an ordinary student, and even stronger than him, who was no different from an ordinary person because he couldn't unleash his supernatural powers, the other party was unaware of his identity, so they could only remain on guard.

If the opponent was truly strong and managed to deceive the examiners from Jigong, then he should have attacked Shen Liang as soon as he entered the underground. Unfortunately, he didn't, which proves that his combat strength isn't too high.

The other guy was thinking of ending the fight and escaping with his girlfriend. He even wanted his girlfriend to dress up as him. He was probably the kind of person who loved life... The landmines weren't very powerful either. He was probably afraid of them collapsing some underground walls and endangering himself.

Thinking of this, Shen Liang said in a low voice, "Find the location."

Harunosuke gritted his teeth, just about to take the place of Shen Liang as the vanguard, when Shen Liang stopped him and shook his head.

Then, without making a sound, Mistelin sneaked into the wall. Her radius of movement was limited to a certain distance from Shen Liang, but the underground warehouse was only so big.

"You're in charge of the light source," Shen Liang ordered.

Harunosuke then realized what was happening. He immediately took out a talisman from his pocket, sketched a few lines, and then threw it out. In an instant, the talisman multiplied into dozens of clones, sticking to the walls of the entire passageway and illuminating the entire dark underground warehouse!

Just then, a message from Mistelin arrived: "Found it!"

Because their thoughts were connected, the entire layout of the underground warehouse was transmitted to Shen Liang's mind by Misterin! The agent was also discovered by Misterin, and even his location was clear.

Yes, the agent's exact location and even movements were observed by Mistelin and transmitted directly to Shen Liang's mind, essentially acting as a surveillance system! Only then did Shen Liang realize that this person was the girl he had lost track of before.

But that boy wasn't here.

Shen Liang looked at Qing Zhijie, "Go and inform the Jigong side that enemy agents have infiltrated and they should come to my aid immediately. Also, there is another agent named Cai Kuan who is not here. Have the Jigong protect the telegraph operator, as they may have other sabotage plans."

Yes, it's not just about physically destroying the machine room; to disable telegraphs, you can also kill people in the faculty and staff dormitories!

But this is beyond Shen Liang's control for the time being.

Harunosuke hesitated for a moment, probably feeling that Inazuma's own lord seemed more important than the troubles involving the Liyue people. However, Shen Liang's tone was commanding, and as a student of the Onmyōryō, he was practically a half-vassal of the shogunate. He knew that he should not disobey Shen Liang's orders, neither morally nor logically.

"Your Highness, please take good care of yourself." Harunosuke ran back the way he came.