Genshin Impact, I, a mere mortal, cannot accompany you to the very end.

Come and kill me.

why.

You are going to betray us.

why.

Smoke billowed in the air, the cracked earth cracked with crimson flames, the unconscious Yakshas whose fates were unknown, the corpses of the salt in the earth piled up into mountains, the Salt God had passed away... Gan Yu's heart was breaking down time and time again.

Why would you say such hurtful things?

I don't want to kill you, I just want my senior brother... to go home.

She bit her lip, her teeth digging deep into her thin lips, blood dripping down. She stared intently at Fushe, filled with hatred...

She was filled with hatred, a deep hatred that seemed to be etched into her very bones, yet despite this, she still did not lay a hand on him.

She hated her own weakness.

Ha... really.

Fu She looked at her and said to himself with a self-deprecating tone.

You silly junior sister.

Why...why...why wouldn't you listen to me until the very end?

Until the very end, he harbored no resentment or blame, only a sense of sadness and helplessness—a helplessness born of utter despair.

It was all his fault; his plan went awry.

He was an incompetent elder brother, and he was also an incompetent senior brother.

Morax still hasn't arrived.

We can't delay any longer.

He couldn't stay here any longer, nor could he stay in Liyue any longer. He could lose control again at any moment, and that would be a disaster he couldn't even imagine.

Life is truly helpless. He finally returned home, only to die in a foreign land.

Fu She turned and walked into the distance, his figure obscured by the heavy rain.

Karmic obstacles did not prevent his departure; they unusually lay dormant, dwelling deep within his soul, seemingly unable to stir again unless life and death were involved—Fushe could sense that another "him" was accumulating power.

I thought that once I absorbed the karmic burdens, everything would be over.

But little did they expect that this war was only just entering its true climax. There was only one enemy: themselves.

The torrential rain washed everything away; his entire life was a struggle against himself.

Where to go next?

Fu She was unaware of this; he proceeded through the torrential rain, guided only by his instincts.

Gan Yu stared intently at his departing figure, her hatred brewing into the deepest, darkest crimson wine in her eyes.

-

P.S.: Haha, I updated an hour earlier today than yesterday. If I update an hour earlier tomorrow, I'll definitely be able to live like a living person!

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Grand Marshal Tengshe Enters the Formation.

The karmic burdens of Liyue.

It doesn't just exist in a few people with karmic burdens.

It deeply permeated the soil of Liyue—a fact that Fushe finally realized when he arrived there.

His mind was already in a daze, and he only wanted to get as far away from Liyue as possible, wandering aimlessly... but the purpose of his so-called stroll was actually ulterior motives.

Fushe had to admit that it was the karmic obstacles within him that had been called upon by his instincts, leading him to this place.

A deep abyss of layered rock.

A deep abyss of layered rocks overflowing with karmic burdens.

If it were Inazuma, this karmic obstacle would be called 'filth'. The so-called filth is the remnant of the deceased's resentment, which lingers in the soil for a long time and refuses to dissipate. It takes deep root in the land, infiltrates the earth's veins, and transforms into an evil that can never be eradicated.

When they exist in an individual, they are called karmic obstacles; when they exist in a nation, they are called "defilement."

Having experienced the wars between demons and gods, Liyue's accumulated filth far surpasses that of Inazuma.

When his entire body was tainted by filth, and his body transformed into a filthy form, Fushe finally felt... the pain and malice that had lingered deep within this land for thousands of years.

The corpses decomposed in the soil, their forms decayed, but the remaining vengeful spirits took deep root in the land of Liyue.

They hid too deep, deeper than the earth's veins, crying out for help, but their cries were drowned out by layers of rocks and towering mountains.

Those who died in battle could not be reborn; their souls were bound by the ley lines and had nowhere to go but to remain forever in the depths of Liyue.

The endless cries and screams came from the depths of the earth's veins; the thick mass of vengeful spirits had materialized and were constantly accumulating power.

Fushe knew what this meant.

plague.

Perhaps... a great plague will sweep across the entire Liyue, perhaps... an even more terrifying disaster will occur.

Liyue slowly dies.

He stared blankly at the scene before him;

Thick smoke and flowing wildfire erupted from the abyss, lingering and staining half the sky, like hundreds of millions of crows circling at the edge of the world. The leaden sky was obscured by those black feathers, leaving no light at all.

A deep abyss of layered rock.

Legend has it that it connects to the deepest part of Liyue. No one knows what the Abyss of Laminaria connects to, but Fushe now knows that beneath that bottomless abyss lies the ley lines of Liyue!

The filth was sealed beneath the Laminaria, maintaining a delicate balance with the outside world. However, the Laminaria was also Liyue's largest mine. People continued to mine it, and through over-exploitation, they finally broke that balance, causing abysses to gush forth from the depths of the earth.

Today marks the day when that balance is broken.

【Ruotuo Dragon King】The first thing that comes to Fushe's mind is Ruotuo Dragon King. This top demon god who was the first to follow Morax and the ancestor of all 'rock' elements on and under the ground has probably been corrupted by karma.

He went mad before he could, while the Rock King Emperor was afflicted by the dragon calamity brought by the Ruotuo Dragon King.

But I... I can't support myself anymore.

call...

call.

Fu She's pupils trembled; he felt his soul being torn apart bit by bit, his heart pounding wildly. He gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the erosion of his karmic burdens.

But he could not hold on any longer. Countless whispers chanted his name. With each call, he lost himself, fell to his knees, and the world before his eyes was filled with afterimages. Thick smoke filled the sky.

He closed his eyes and lost consciousness.

-

Boyang was an ordinary soldier in the Qianyan Army.

They were stationed in the deep abyss of layered rocks.

He was young, in the prime of his youth, and it was a great honor for him to become a member of the Thousand Rock Army.

When he was a child, when others asked him what his dream was, he answered that he wanted to join the army. As a child, he thought that being a soldier was very cool.

"I want to be a great general too!" Little Boyang often said.

He grew up listening to stories of various generals, and his favorite was the legend of the Yaksha Immortals. Among them, Marshal Tengshe was his idol, and he often fantasized about going into battle and killing enemies.

He heard that Marshal Tai was the commander of the Qianyan Army, so he thought about joining the Qianyan Army.

Ironically, when he joined the Thousand Rock Army, Fushe had already retired from the army.

This boy, born in a small fishing village, is just a soldier in the garrison and has never even seen the marshal's face, yet he naively dreams of fighting alongside the marshal.

But naivety always comes at a price.

As karmic obstacles surged forth from the depths of the abyss, countless monstrous filth were born. The first to be devoured, besides the miners working in the rock strata, were these soldiers... It all happened too fast. Bo Yang watched as the abyssal monsters devoured his comrades.

Blood and severed limbs were scattered in the air.

The souls of the deceased colleagues transformed into new karmic obstacles, which, endlessly, eroded them.

He felt fear, he wanted to escape, his legs were trembling, so he ran away, the sound of flesh being torn apart echoing behind him. Bo Yang's eyes trembled as he escaped from the cave of the giant rock abyss. He wanted to continue running, but suddenly, Bo Yang stopped.

His pupils were constricted, his chest was heaving violently, and his shoulders were trembling incessantly.

Because he saw something.

There lay an injured old man...

The people were very weak.

With a huge bloody hole in his shoulder, his clothes were tattered and stained with blood. He leaned weakly and painfully against the rock wall, his breathing was very shallow, and his lips were ashen and purple.

If he were left alone here, he would be devoured by the monsters behind him in an instant.

Boyang was terrified. He wanted to run away without a care in the world, and in fact, he did just that... But he stopped in his tracks, paused, lowered his head, and stared at the armor that belonged only to the Thousand Rock Army. At that moment, the dying civilians were behind him, the metallic smell of blood filled his nostrils, and the sky was completely corrupted by filth.

The world was so empty and quiet that he suddenly realized that he was the only soldier who had escaped... or rather, he was the only one who had chosen to run away.

His comrades remained behind him, fighting the monsters once more. The Thousand Rock Army did not leave because the miners trapped in the Abyss of Layered Rocks had not yet departed.

Boyang turned around again, staring at the frail old man behind him, his heart pounding.

The people were behind him, and he was a soldier.

The monsters, formed from karmic obstacles, had already chased after them. Their blood-red fur seemed to be on fire. They roared, exhaling filthy and turbid breaths from between their white teeth, their greedy eyes fixed on the old man with lust.

asshole!

asshole! !

Boyang drew the sword of the Thousand Rock Army, its blade gleaming with a blinding cold light. The soldier trembled with fear, but he stopped and drew the blade toward the monster he feared.

-

When Fushe opened his eyes, he felt a little dampness on his cheek. He gently wiped it away with his hand, and when he looked up, he saw bloodstains that smelled of rust and were almost congealed. His mind was confused and disoriented.

"...You're awake."

The one who said this was a young soldier.