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

The Skirk was stunned; she was utterly terrified.

Nerve cord fixation? Such an unthinkable form of torture! To keep a scholar alive but only able to think for three minutes at a time, like a goldfish with only a three-minute memory! She can't get a share of the endless knowledge, and no matter how wise she is, she can't summarize any experience!

This is punishment based on time!

"Isn't that creative!" Shen Liang grinned. "You think she's important and shouldn't die? I think so too. I specifically gave her my genes, so she can't die without my permission! Her body's self-healing ability is faster than her harming herself! By the way, do you know about suicide? Guess if she only has three minutes to think about it, can she realize that her predicament requires suicide to alleviate it?"

Shen Liang laughed heartily, then suddenly looked at Silky, her eyes wide: "Sister, look, three minutes have passed."

Silky felt a sinking feeling in her heart; she knew what Shen Liang meant.

Three minutes had passed, and Rheindottir still hadn't chosen suicide. Her thoughts reset every three minutes, meaning she would never, ever, reach the level of contemplating "suicide." She would be eternally tormented, eternally trapped in those three minutes of "I've been deprived of all the power to think, what should I do?"

She lives forever in that three-minute cycle of fear, collapse, sorrow, and despair, unable even to reach death.

"You and..."

"Is it no different from killing her? No, killing me will naturally undo the damage." Shen Liang laughed. "I'll let her live forever. As long as I die and vanish into nothingness without leaving a trace of pheromones, she will naturally feel reborn."

Then his voice turned icy, "Isn't this fair? She was originally dead, and I gave her life, so she owes me... Since the original punishment was death, and now she owes me, we have to use a solution more cruel than death, right?"

Silky was furious, but she suppressed it, and even felt a little smug.

The young emperor's vision is ultimately limited; no matter how cruel the punishment, there is still a way to escape it.

She looked at Shen Liang, and finally made her decision. She grabbed Rhinedot, who was clutching his head in a daze, and whispered, "You promised to let the Kanrea people live!"

“Of course.” Shen Liang said in a low voice, a cold smile suddenly appearing on his lips. He snapped his fingers, and then… the frozen tsunami awoke once more!

He turned his blade, pointing it directly at the millions of soldiers and civilians in the city below. Wherever the blade pointed, a massive tidal wave roared in, engulfing everyone in the city who couldn't escape! Because Tewat is only fifty or sixty meters above sea level, all the buildings were not even as high as the waves. In the face of this colossal wave, all the houses snapped like straw in the wind. Human bodies were so small in the face of such a disaster that they couldn't even be seen!

A shocking turn of events.

"No! No! This can't be!"

Even Rheindorf, who only had three minutes left, screamed in alarm.

"Lightning Cold! You've gone back on your word!" Skykirk roared. "You promised not to harm the innocent!"

"Those who could bind me with morality have already been killed by you." The handsome white-haired youth shrugged and sneered, his bright golden eyes like mocking knives. "Harm the innocent? You Kanria were merciful enough to spare civilians like Inazuma? My mother was weak and powerless, a threat to you even among the Seven Gods, yet what did you do to her? You dare talk about harming the innocent!?"

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Chapter Twenty-Three: The Witch's Guild is All Here

"Going back on your word? I've always been someone who goes back on my word." The handsome white-haired youth's gaze was mocking. "Harming the innocent? You Kanria were so merciful to Inazuma that you spared the commoners? My mother is weak and powerless, and among the Seven Gods, she poses no threat to you. Yet what have you done to my mother? You dare to talk about harming the innocent!?"

"Anyone else who wants to protect this country! Step forward! I'll kill them one by one!" Shen Liang roared, unleashing another wave of destruction as the group of Kanria struggled to escape to higher ground. He then turned to glare at Skykirk, "No one can escape! The Witch Society wants to protect her, huh? Then your Witch Society will die by my hand too! You try me!"

Silky instinctively took a step back.

But she quickly calmed down, her eyes filled with utter despair. She no longer tried to communicate with Shen Liang about letting go of these ordinary humans from Kanria, a trace of sorrow flashing in her eyes: "You have completely lost your mind... You were a madman from the beginning, I shouldn't have believed you would let the humans go."

A cold glint flashed in Shen Liang's eyes, and he suddenly swung his sword again, severing one of Rhein-Dort's arms!

"Why would you witches protect her?" Shen Liang demanded sharply. "You've gone from behind the scenes to the forefront; you must have some ambition, right? What kind of ambition makes you dare to lay a hand on my mother? Tell me immediately, or I'll continue torturing her!"

As he spoke, he slashed down again. Skirk rushed forward to try and block, but Shen Liang's face flashed with ruthlessness. He turned and slashed! The girl's left arm flew off instantly, blood spurting out!

Silky screamed in agony.

"Hiss—" Skirk gritted her teeth, took several steps back, and finally a bitter smile appeared on her face. "Ruo Ri Mingshen... no, the current Ruo Ri Emperor, truly has the nature of a jackal. Alice often said that you can never judge a book by its cover; you are a proud and contemptuous little wolfhound to the core. How apt! To those close to you, you are an obedient and adorable puppy licking your palm and wagging your tail, but to outsiders... even those who are not enemies, you will show your wolfish side."

Shen Liang tilted his head and looked at her, unmoved. Since he hadn't cut off Rheindorf's arm, he simply smiled coldly and raised his katana again.

With grief and indignation in her eyes, Skirk suddenly shouted, "Lightning Cold! How can you kill innocent people like this in front of your mother's spirit? Think about how she taught you, and think about how you are now the very evil heretic she wanted to exterminate in her life!"

Shen Liang froze. His fierce killing intent vanished for a moment upon hearing those words. In a daze, he seemed to be trapped in an icy prison, a chilling clarity washing over him.

"Go!" With all her might, Skykirk tore open a spatial rift, and in a flash, she grabbed Rhinedot and tried to throw her into the rift! It was a secret passage leading directly to the abyss, and the abyss was a place beyond the reach of the laws of nature. Even Shen Liang, as a god, could not enter the abyss!

In the moment Shen Liang was distracted, this person was able to seize the opportunity to break through his space-time barrier!?

How could this be? This isn't a spatial lock; it's a power that locks down time itself! Shen Liang has solidified the space around him, approximately 50 meters in diameter, into an "eternal" state. The movement of matter inside and outside is extremely slow, making it incredibly difficult to open any spatial rift leading to the outside world. This is essentially a complete seal, preventing any force from acting on the outside world beyond the reach of time.

To put it simply, because the flow of time inside and outside is different, even a tsunami rising from the outside cannot rush into the space around Shen Liang.

This appears to be a "spatial lock," but it is actually a "temporal lock." In a broader worldview, space and time are one, so locking time and locking space have the same effect—but the difficulty of breaking them is completely different! It is impossible for someone with only spatial abilities to break a time lock!

Startled, Shen Liang's eyes flashed with a ferocious look.

"As expected!" He suddenly realized that, sure enough, someone was watching from behind the scenes!

However, there was no time to think further. Just as Skork was about to escape, a figure appeared faster than Shen Liang, blocking the rift. With a wave of his banner, he casually swept across the area, quickly smoothing out the spatial rift that had just erupted.

The tall woman in the bodysuit casually twirled the flag bearing the Shaniat emblem and stuck it beside her. Looking down at her palm, she smiled slightly: "As expected of the body of the Shaniat Saintess, even in this weakened state, the power she can exert is still no less than that of the Seven Gods."

"What...you?!" Skorke's fleeting chance of survival vanished in an instant. The platinum banner of the Saintess's family blocked her way, and silence fell. She stared wide-eyed at Mistelin, whose speed surpassed even the teleportation of space, and finally, all her strength gave out.

As a witch, no matter how powerful or exaggerated her strength was, it could not compare to that of a true god. She stared at Mistelin in despair.

Misterlin was somewhat moved. Even in his madness, Shen Liang did not forget to make backup plans, granting Misterlin the power of instant acceleration to ensure that if he encountered a problem and could not react in time, Misterlin would be able to unleash a speed faster than thinking.

The only problem with the near-eternal nature of time-manipulation powers is that even at their fastest speed, they are still limited by the "speed of thought." However, by making contingency plans in advance and ensuring that Misterin's perceived time is always faster than normal time, she can quickly make up for any unexpected events.

After all, in Mistelin's eyes, Shen Liang and Skykirk's communication process was slowed down many times, and she had more reaction time than Shen Liang.

O power, both fleeting and eternal...

Although this wasn't the first time Skirk had experienced it, she was still filled with despair. This kind of power was almost divine, a heaven-defying ability that was nearly impossible to resist... It was precisely because Raiden truly understood this that Kanria had specifically targeted this least threatening demon god. But the price of her action came too quickly; her son's understanding of time was even more profound than hers... Like a traveler wandering at the end of time, manipulating time at will was practically instinctive for him!

Silky didn't know how severe the side effects of this power surge would be, but this wasn't the first time Shen Liang had done this... Every time he unleashed his power, he did so without considering the cost, and each time the intensity increased. As the most prized creation of the Fire-Chasing Moth, no one could fathom his limits.

"You despicable scoundrels... a bunch of bastards who only dare to peek from the shadows, come out!" Shen Liang drew his sword and shattered the statues in the royal city of Kanria. The sword's impact into the sea stirred up a thousand-meter-high wave. Millions gathered at the highest point of Intiwart, seemingly stunned by such brutal power. They didn't even have the strength to curse anymore; they could only kneel in grief, wailing and howling pitifully.

But Shen Liang didn't even glance at them. He just stared at the festering faces of Silky and Rheindorf, who were covered in blood and supporting each other, looking like they were about to die.

Shen Liang, however, still gripped Siker's shoulders and relentlessly pressed, "Who else was involved in murdering my mother!"

"What's the point of asking so many questions? The dead are gone." A witch dressed in a black jumpsuit and wearing a tall hat finally appeared more than 100 meters away from Shen Liang. She had a keen sense of distance. Through observation, she realized that Shen Liang's time lock range was about 50 meters. If she was far away, that strange and unpredictable time ability would not be so easy to bind her.

Her tone was chilling as she stared at Shen Liang: "Code name B, Barbie Ross, the Great Magician."

At the same distance, another mature woman in a formal dress bowed slightly to Shen Liang. "Good afternoon. I never expected that the 'Little Emperor' sung by Inazuma would be such a naive young man. But he is indeed a true god. You have forced him to this point. Rheindorf is too arrogant. Code name J, Ivanovna, dancer."

"I don't want to get involved. I'm just an ordinary person, responsible for recording." A gentle voice came from a petite woman who seemed to be married. She pulled down the brim of her hat, holding a thick notebook. Her demeanor was refined, and her tone was helpless. "I don't have your power. The Little Emperor could probably kill me with a single glance. But... even so, as the Little Emperor who isn't recorded by the World Tree, I'm even more interested. Your story can only be passed down by me, right?"

"Code name M, Anders Dort, writer."

"The Witches' Guild... Heh." Shen Lianghui's golden eyes couldn't help but rage. "What a cunning scheme, what a cunning scheme... The Witches' Guild, which has always claimed not to interfere with the Seven Kingdoms, these so-called reclusive people, have actually colluded with Kanria."

“Um, Kanria isn’t the Seven Kingdoms.” Another voice hesitated for a moment, but eventually revealed itself. It was the only girl among the tall, alluring witches. After a long pause, she stood beside Barbielos. “I think Your Highness may have misunderstood. The Witches’ Society isn’t against you. We only have one goal: to ensure the success of our research into the other world. And Your Highness, you yourself are a deity from another world. Haven’t you realized… you’ve interfered far too much?”

She hesitated before saying, “The history and stories of Teyvat should be resolved by the beings of Teyvat. Your Highness, you are an outsider, and Raiden is not your mother after all. You have regained your memories, and Raiden is but a few decades of your life. In your lifespan of tens of thousands of years, Raiden is but a tiny moment.”

"How did you know that!" Shen Liang's expression suddenly changed.

“I… my code name is N, Nico, the Prophet,” Nico said timidly. “The fate of Teyvat cannot be easily shaken. Your Highness, you are not the first to descend, nor will you be the last. Trying to control the World Tree, trying to use the World Tree to reverse the fate of this world, is not something Your Highness should be doing. Whether it is Raiden’s scheme or your madness, how can you reverse the established history?”

“In terms of the timeline, it’s not time yet when it’s ‘set’!” Shen Liang said in a low voice.

“No, no, Your Highness, you are a god who can manipulate time, you should know this even more.” Nico looked at him sadly. “You come from the future, you have already witnessed history, your existence is proof of destiny. You will come to this era because everything you do will lead this era to the ending you foresee. From the moment you traveled through time, your destiny, Raiden Shin’s destiny, was already ‘predetermined.’ Raiden Shin chose to face it. She knew her ending, so she decided to choose her own way to reach that ending.”

"What do you want to say?"

"What I want to say is, your mother, the Goddess of Thunder. Her death preserved the greatest value. Inazuma is yours now. Kanria is destroyed, and from now on, Inazuma will be revived in your hands. You will become the greatest restorer after the Demon God War." Nico mustered his courage and walked to Shen Liang's side, kindly shaking his hand and gently persuading him, "What Raiden truly wanted to see was her child walk this path. Her death was her choice, not because any of us killed her, but because that unchangeable fate forced her to die. I understand your anger, Little Emperor. The pain of losing your mother is unbearable, but with your ten thousand years of lifespan and perspective beyond time, why should you care about a mere thirty years of stories? Countless demon gods died during the Demon God War. To create a great era, that wasn't hatred; it was a necessary sacrifice. Raiden truly chose such a sacrifice."

"My mother...sacrificed herself?" Shen Liang repeated, "For whom did she sacrifice herself?"

“Of course I’d sacrifice myself for you, for the son she loved most in her life!” Nico felt his emotions had finally calmed down, and she felt a little relieved. Her attitude became even more enthusiastic. “What we Witches do is never to overthrow the Seven Gods, but to obtain power from beyond the world to overthrow the laws of nature and the abyss! You are the power from beyond the world. You know the falsehood of this world, even the starry sky is false! Little Emperor, we are not only not enemies, but we may even be friends… We need to see the real world. The Witches’ mission is to explore the truth. To some extent, as the one who descends, you also represent ‘truth’.”

"This is the world you saw as a prophet? You've seen quite a lot." Shen Liang laughed. "But you want to talk about cooperation? Cooperation requires capital. I can kill you all right now. What can we talk about on an unequal footing?"

“You’ve calmed down, and I think you understand what we mean.” Nico chuckled. “As for the imbalance, now that we’re here, it’s equal.”

"Oh?"

"The Witches' Guild may not be able to compare to you, Your Highness, and even we are helpless against your domain of power, but... the God who governs time, the true God, is on our side." Nico was no longer timid, and even her tone was somewhat confident. "You may have heard of the Time Ruler, Istaru. With her assistance, even the Witches' Guild can compete with you. After all, apart from the strange time, the strongest ability you have shown is not even as powerful as your mother, Raiden Shin."

Shen Liang nodded.

Indeed, he is inferior. Shen Liang possesses many powers, but none of them are particularly strong. The advantage of the Son of Man lies not in this; his control over water, ice, and even lightning is weaker than that of the original host. His only advantage is his ability to integrate and utilize these powers.

To give an example, if the Water God were here, the giant waves he stirred up could be easily suppressed by her, turning them into calm, still waters. His lightning could also be easily withdrawn by the Thunder God.

Even with the exponential increase in power from losing the power of time, his abilities might not even be as strong as those of the great magician Barbiros.

Therefore, the witches are absolutely right. They truly deserve to be called an organization dedicated to exploring the truth. Their intelligence network and ability to spy on the world are no less than those of the Seven Gods.

Of course, it's also possible that his information has already been leaked by Alice...

Chapter Twenty-Four: I'm a Model Mother and Son in Inazuma

"So what you mean is?" Shen Liang asked.

Nicole sensed that he seemed somewhat interested, staring intently at the boy's expression, but Shen Liang, though speaking, remained expressionless.

She decided to steer the conversation back on track, slowly circling around Shen Liang, her tone generous: "Naturally, we can each take a step back. Think carefully, there's no truly irreconcilable hatred between us. Your Highness, your power shouldn't be used to intervene in human conflicts; gods should walk on the battlefields of gods. We witches will welcome you without reservation. You will become the first ruler to share information and help each other with the witches. Think about it, Your Highness, every witch truly understands the world and possesses the vast starry sky. With us, you are not alone. We can even help you return to your homeland, that place called 'Earth'."

She paused, then looked at Shen Liang's expression again, finally noticing his slight surprise. She smiled and said, "Even the Second Throne cannot seal away all the truths of the world. We are all voyeurs; what do a few deaths and frictions matter? Look ahead, my dear little emperor. Your mother gave her life to create the great era in which you can dominate the world. How can you be trapped in the past? The witch will acknowledge your pain and your mother's sacrifice, but personal tragedy is for the sake of the times. Lei Dian Zhen chose to die on the battlefield of Kanria, entrusting her legacy to you. She could not resist fate, but ultimately used fate to do the most perfect thing a mother could do... You don't need to disappoint her expectations."