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

—Although this question should be asked by a younger person, I can hardly be considered an elder in front of Liang'er. Damn it, asking such a naive question, how am I supposed to face my own pathetic and depraved self? Alice, oh Alice, don't really turn into an evil witch!

“Hmm, look at this picture book. Inside a girl’s belly, there’s a room that nurtures the baby, called the uterus. Every child grows slowly from this room into an embryo—of course, you’re not one, but that’s not important—and the embryo naturally develops into a baby, and is then born.” Alice turned a page, explaining slowly. As she did so, her mood calmed down a bit. How should she put it… she would just treat Shen Liang, this strange child, as an opportunity to educate him for the sake of her own daughter.

Anyway... it was bound to happen sooner or later.

“And for boys, if they love a girl, want to start a family with her, and want to have children with her, they also have to do this. The essence that forms the embryo is injected into the room where the girl is raising the baby. This process is a sacred covenant, meaning that from then on, the two of them will be husband and wife, sharing a lifetime together and having children,” Alice said. “And ‘losing virginity’ is a derogatory term. Actually, if a man and woman love each other, this is a necessary process for spending their lives together, and it doesn’t count as losing virginity. But of course, if we're only talking about your virginity mark, if you do this process, it means that your virginity mark will fall off.”

Shen Liang nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

“So this is a very important thing. Once it happens, it means that the two people can never be separated again, and they must make each other happy no matter what. For a girl, the room where she raises her baby is the most sacred and precious. Being willing to go through this process means that she is willing to let her lover lose his sanctuary. It takes a lot of courage and pressure.” Alice looked into his eyes. “Don’t let a girl like this down.”

Shen Liang lowered his head, and Alice could only see his long eyelashes trembling slightly, as if he were deep in thought and hadn't spoken for a long time.

Alice was quite satisfied, feeling she had fulfilled the responsibility of providing Raiden with the "common sense education" he had failed to deliver. Now, this little wildcat was probably filled with thoughts and guilt about his women, secretly vowing to cherish his wife if he ever got married, and perhaps even congratulating himself on waking up in time to avoid becoming a scumbag…

Then she saw Shen Liang raise her head, her red eyes still full of confusion, "Go on, what exactly is it like for a boy to lose his virginity?"

Alice slapped her face.

There's no saving him! This kid's a born scoundrel!

------------

Shen Liang lay on the table playing a game with Rosalin. It was a deduction game that could be played with charcoal pencils and paper. They drew a picture in the upper left and lower right corners of a piece of white paper, which was called the "base camp". In front of the base camp were three small circles, which were called "camps". The two of them took turns flicking the tip of the pencil to make their camp leave a mark on the paper. Once the mark passed through the opponent's camp, the opponent's camp would be defeated.

You can only attack the enemy's main camp after you have killed all of their camps. If the enemy has all its camps killed and there are no camps left to use, or if the enemy does not make a move in a turn, a new camp can be generated next to your main camp in the next turn, and you can continue to fight.

It was a very childish game; after only a few minutes, the paper was covered in scribbles, making it impossible to identify who was who. But it was just two elementary school students from Jigong passing the time, and Shen Liang and Rosalin sometimes argued. Rosalin said that Shen Liang's strokes didn't count because he pushed the pen away instead of flicking it with his finger, while Shen Liang said that Rosalin was shameless for dragging out the game with a child and refusing to admit defeat.

Alice studied the simple yet quite interesting game for a long time, and suggested that the ink could be erased to ensure the sustainability of the battle. She enthusiastically asked Rosalyn to step aside so she could have a match with Shen Liang. But as soon as Rosalyn moved her chair aside, she stumbled and lost her balance.

"Wow, you spilled all the wine on me..." Alice clutched her chest and stood up quickly. Even though her first thought was to tease Shen Liang and make him lick the wine from the crevices, she thought that Shen Liang probably wouldn't be embarrassed and would actually bite her. Just as she was hesitating, she felt the ground shake noticeably.

She immediately realized that Rosalyn wasn't just stumbling; the shaking of the ground had caused the entire tent to shift, the table was sliding to the right, and the things on it were falling over with a crash!

Shen Liang suddenly left his position and tackled the telegraph machine, trying his best to prevent it from collapsing. Soon after, they all heard the sound of the earth shaking.

"Damn it! An earthquake!" Rosalind's face turned pale. "How is this possible? Ever since the Geo Archon has been guarding Liyue, the mountains have been stable. How could there be an earthquake for no reason?"

"Because the Geo Archon isn't in Liyue anymore! Can't you sense it? The epicenter is right below us, vertically underground. This area of ​​the Laminaria isn't a tectonic plate boundary; if there's an underground epicenter here, it must be man-made!" Iris jumped up, decisively throwing back the curtain and rushing out of the tent. "I knew it!"

Sister Rosalyn! .jpg

Chapter 97 Let's Be the Emperor of Liyue!

Their encampment was located in Cailu Valley, far from the Layered Rock Abyss mining area. While not on the front lines and relatively safe, the Layered Rock Abyss was a large, sunken valley, and from Cailu Valley, a high vantage point, one could easily see most of its panoramic view. Their camp wasn't even in the area most severely affected by the earthquake; the epicenter was concentrated in the entire mining region!

The earth cracked, and the earth dragon rose up!

Shen Liang was also stunned by the violent tremor. The mining area was the front line, and at least 10,000 people had been camped there to guard the mouth of the giant abyss! This earthquake, which occurred without warning, was bound to cause casualties. The most crucial question was not the casualties, but why the earthquake occurred and what power Kanria possessed that could cause a disaster of this magnitude!

"Emergency Response Plan Project No. 3!"

Shen Liang realized what was happening, grabbed the telegraph machine, and immediately entered the notification!

Four needles on the telegraph machine, which was clicking away, had stopped jumping, meaning that four lines had been damaged by the earthquake. Fortunately, the other lines were still working. Sure enough, the needles started jumping rapidly two minutes later, coming from the lines that had not yet been cut. Telegraph operators from other camps quickly responded.

"The epicenter is at the mouth of the abyss! Large areas of the ground have collapsed, and the area of ​​the mouth of the abyss is expanding!"

"The terrain below the Abyss is already visible to the naked eye! The sun is shining in, and the visibility is very high!"

"The casualties of the 31st Battalion are unknown, but there is no need to retreat! However, the telegraph machine will be transferred to the 32nd Battalion! Your Highness, please immediately inform General Jinpeng! The entrance to the Layered Rock Abyss has been blown open!"

"The Red Cloud Camp is unaware and there is no need to retreat. The scouts believe that an earthquake of approximately magnitude seven just occurred, and based on the earthquake's characteristics, it appears to be man-made! Your Highness, please contact General Fire Rat immediately! The earthquake may have other motives!"

Shen Liang was even taken aback.

In this emergency, news of earthquake casualties was surprisingly the least important thing. Each military camp simply reported the casualties and then moved on to extremely concise reports of other valuable information. It seemed that the Thousand Rock Army was more concerned with the opportunities presented by this earthquake than with being attacked or losing lives in a war?

But now, when Shen Liang looked up, he found that the mouth of the abyss in the center of the layered rock abyss had indeed been shaken open into a huge hole, so big that the interior of the mine, which was originally pitch black, was now clearly illuminated by the sun!

In other words, now is the best time to destroy the gate to the Beast Realm underground. Admittedly, there is still abyssal black mud inside, but the black mud is not a direct killing force. It is more like miasma or plague. In fact, it has been proven that after a small amount of contact with abyssal black mud, one can recover after resting for a period of time.

Shen Liang immediately turned to Rosalin and ordered, "Go and tell Sister Fanan and the others to write down everything that just happened! I'll continue to maintain the telegraph service here!"

Just as Rosalyn was about to leave, Shen Liang paused. He perked up his ears slightly and heard a sharp, menacing glint in the wind.

Although he couldn't use extraordinary powers, he was still in the body of a demon god. Shen Liang's five senses were far stronger than ordinary people, even surpassing those of the Yaksha, a celestial being with heightened senses. Before Rosalind and Alice could react, a sharp golden glint flashed in Shen Liang's crimson eyes. He suddenly grabbed the coffin on his back and slammed it into the air!

"Snapped!"

It was like swatting a mosquito, but the sound was powerful and heavy, and the howling wind pressure made Rosalyn cover her ears and squat down. When she looked up, she only saw a pitch-black wolf with huge fangs and teeth, seemingly only half a body, sweep over her head and be slammed heavily to the ground by Shen Liang with the coffin! Black and blue filthy blood splattered half of the coffin lid.

Shen Liang used his hand as a knife, unleashing a thunderous strike, and severed the monster's head entirely!

"What is this thing!" Rosalind stared at the decapitated black wolf, her voice trembling slightly. She had been safely on the rear lines, and this was the first time she had faced the enemy... or rather, the beast.

"【Gold】A creation of Rhinedoth, a beast-like hound capable of eroding the world's borders, eager to devour and consume any civilization. Though called a hound, it is essentially a wolf," Alice whispered. "A monster unit capable of freely entering and exiting the Beast Realm and the Teyvat continent, capable of spatial leaps, its destructive power is extremely strong. It is the most effective weapon for Kanria against various nations, perhaps even more effective than autonomous machines!"

"Space jump?" Rosalyn quickly looked up and glanced around, afraid that a second black wolf would appear behind her, but she quickly realized what was happening and grabbed Shen Liang's hand. "You used divine power?"

She wasn't sure what power Shen Liang was using, but she assumed that a demon god's power must be divine. However, she knew that Shen Liang's outburst came at a price, and although she didn't know what that price was, the cost of making a demon god willingly become an ordinary person couldn't be low.

"Don't worry about that for now." Shen Liang stared at the black wolf's corpse for a while. After it died, it gradually decomposed, leaving not even much of a trace. That's good. Rhinedot is probably worried that others will reverse-engineer her projects, just like how no one knows how to use her autonomous machines yet.

“We are in a safe position here. How could there suddenly be a gap that allows the Black Wolf to break through the encirclement and attack us?” Shen Liang said in a low voice. Rosalin could feel his tension because she noticed that the gold in Shen Liang’s eyes had not yet faded. “Even an earthquake could not tear open a gap. In order to prevent the monsters underground from escaping and endangering the people, there are several layers of encirclement.”

“It can jump through space!” Rosalind said.

“No, space jumps have distance limitations. It's not a demon god who controls ‘space,’ how could it possibly have such power? If even we have black wolves here, it means…”

“General,” Shen Liang said.

The little puppet understood, picked him up, and leaped into the air. Then, Shen Liang looked down at the battlefield of the entire layered rock abyss.

"In an instant, ten times faster." Shen Liang silently chanted in his mind. With a simple acceleration of his thoughts, the whole world seemed to slow down in his eyes in an instant.

However, he was still essentially in a weakened state. The days spent nourishing the four Yakshas had already caused him to experience a fever, and activating his powers made him feel extremely hot. The speed of heat transfer had nothing to do with his thinking speed. The general leaning against him also felt his brother's body temperature rise to over forty degrees Celsius, but she remained silent. She knew that Shen Liang was definitely doing something serious by using his powers.

Shen Liang's gaze pierced through the clouds, observing the world at ten times the slow speed with eyesight surpassing that of an eagle.

He was observing what was happening on the battlefield, especially in the main mining area. The main mining area was the outer ring of the Abyss's Mouth. The ore mined from underground was usually piled up here through the mine tunnels, making it the closest place to the Abyss's Mouth. The most elite Tiger Might Battalion was stationed here.

The Tiger Might Army and Tiger Might Battalion are the elite of the three armies. Among the initially severed power lines, this camp, closest to the epicenter, naturally had no telegraph service!

Shen Liang wanted to see this area; if it was really as he predicted…

"A few... ones..." The general's question was perceived as being twice as slow, which meant that the general was asking him at five times the speed.

Shen Liang stared at the vast expanse of darkness in the main mining area and swallowed hard.

“Several thousand, tens of thousands… no, even… still pouring out!” Shen Liang said softly, but his voice was barely audible, lacking his usual nonchalance and sounding somewhat chaotic.

He had already spotted the location of the main mining area. From the open abyss, beast-like monsters emerged like a tide: half-wolves, bloodthirsty hounds, vultures reduced to skeletons, lizards lurking on the ground, and all sorts of beast-like monsters designed by Rhinedot!

This horde of monsters, devoid of pain and fatigue, whose sole purpose in killing was slaughter without any justification, trained by the Rhinedoth, formed an overwhelming beast tide! Thousands and tens of thousands are insufficient to describe their sheer numbers. No wonder the Thousand Rock Army, despite not finding a single enemy, has remained stationed here for a full six months, numbering over a hundred thousand! The Thousand Rock Army knows all too well the terror of these monsters. Their absence is merely due to the orders of the Kanriyans, not because they fear the Thousand Rock Army!

Now that the beast has truly been unleashed, it is clear that the Thousand Rock Army is utterly unable to withstand it.

-----------------

"Everyone! Retreat to a 300-mile defensive line in the rocky abyss!"

The color of blood obscured his pupils, and Fu She's mind was in chaos, but he still managed to pierce a beast-like hunting dog through with a long spear. Two additional hands on his shoulders grabbed the wolf's upper and lower jaws at the same time. His muscles bulged and lightning flashed as he exerted his strength to tear the black wolf in half!

Unlike Yingda, Fanan, and Xiao, Fushe was already in a bad mental state. After Mi Nu's death, he seemed to be more severely affected by his karma, and began to suffer from amnesia, irritability, illogical thinking, and even forget his closest relatives.

But he was still the most powerful Yaksha, so after Yingda took over the responsibility of the commander, he did not return to the rear to rest. Instead, he voluntarily gave up his command duties and went to be stationed in the most dangerous camp, which was the main mining area.

Setting up camp meant not having to think about things like marching and troop deployment, which was enough for Fushe to feel like he was resting.

He remembered that when the beautiful young prince treated him, he said that his condition of karmic possession was actually similar to Alzheimer's disease in layman's terms. He didn't quite understand many of the medical terms, such as cognitive decline, behavioral disorders, and decreased self-care ability. He only remembered that it was a neurological disease, which meant that the brain was damaged and that it usually started after the age of sixty-five.

Fu She thought, "Isn't that obvious? How could I not know I'm a bit senile? But he's way past sixty-five, so that makes sense." The little guy only reached his waist, small in stature but incredibly capable. After the treatment, he'd actually become much more lucid. If only he could be brought in as a military doctor instead of some lousy telegraph operator…

But what was her name again? She doesn't seem to be from Liyue, with white hair… Winterfell? That doesn't seem like it either…

Fushe held a vajra in his left hand and a spear in his right, barely managing to prop himself up by planting his foot on the ground.

He had lost count of how many bloodthirsty monsters he had killed. These monsters truly had no reverence for life, not only for their enemies but also for themselves. Even when he severely wounded them, they felt no pain or fear; they would only seize any opportunity to tear their opponent apart and perish together.

Fushe had no idea how many times his body had shattered, but he knew he was a strong immortal, the most skilled in combat… a Yaksha, yes, a Yaksha. Countless times he had been injured and healed countless times, and he couldn't remember how many times he had rushed to the vicinity of the Abyss.

But it's meaningless and useless.

There were too many monsters, too many monsters rushing out of the abyss. Their roars, when combined, could tear everything apart, including ore. Their blood corroded the ground, turning vegetation to scorch. They gathered together like a tide. Although Fushe stood there like a reef being battered by the tide, standing firm despite being bombarded countless times, it was useless.

The tide surged wave after wave, crashing against the rocks and shattering everything in its path, but most of it bypassed him to attack the Tiger Might Army soldiers. These soldiers were the elite of Liyue, the strongest battalion, but even if a human could muster the courage to face those monsters, their numbers were still fewer than the monsters'!

A single camp could barely hold a little over ten thousand people, with many more troops yet to arrive from other camps, leading to a one-sided massacre. Turning around, one could see some monsters had already broken through the defenses and were rushing towards areas outside the main mining area... towards the edge of the Rock Abyss.

Fushe knew he couldn't hold on any longer. This matter had already exceeded the limits of a Yaksha, let alone a Yaksha who was mentally unstable.

"Marshal! Retreat immediately! We've rendezvoused with General Fire Rat in the rear! We have the strength to fight!"

"Marshal, take this route! This subordinate will cover the rear!"

"Military situation is urgent, Marshal! What are you still hesitating for! Don't worry about our safety, this is our duty on the battlefield! Marshal, let's go!"

There was a cacophony of sounds everywhere. Someone was pulling at his arm. Fu She instinctively flung his hand away, only to see the person's surprised look.

"I'm sorry... I..."

"We can't hold out! We've already collapsed! This is just pointless death, everyone's fleeing! Marshal, what are you thinking!"

Fu She clutched his head. He felt the world was too chaotic; sounds and figures were everywhere, a fragmented yet relentless bombardment that made his head ache. He didn't even know who these people were, or why they were telling him to run, but... could he even run?