While I was in Mondstadt, I never imagined becoming a god.

Before long, the two men killed him on the spot.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Overt Schemes

After dealing with the corpse of the mutated ice-deceptive flower, Xu Chuan squatted down and took out the Tvalin's Tear from his pocket.

The dark red crystal trembled slightly in his palm, as if it had come to life.

Crimson light flowed within it, each flicker carrying a strange rhythm.

"Is it glowing?"

Yura stared warily at the teardrop, her body involuntarily taking a half-step back.

"That thing made me feel very uncomfortable."

Xu Chuan simply focused on observing the changes in the teardrops.

He could feel that the teardrops were resonating with something.

It is the residual dragon poison blood inside the Ice Deception Flower.

The forces originating from the same source resonate with each other on this snow-capped mountain.

Although the Ice Deceitful Flower has been killed, the abyssal power within its poisonous blood has not dissipated and is stirring restlessly under the pull of the teardrops.

An idea popped into Xu Chuan's mind.

He clenched his teardrop, and the power of the knight's unarmed strength slowly flowed into it.

Those previously restless forces seemed to have been suppressed by something, and instantly quieted down.

really.

He can control this thing.

Xu Chuan took a deep breath and brought his tears close to the corpse of the Ice Flower.

Yura stared in surprise.

From the enormous corpse of the Ice Deceitful Flower, wisps of scarlet blood mist drifted out, gathering in the air to form a thin red line that slowly flowed into the teardrop.

The blood mist exuded an ominous aura that sent chills down Yura's spine. Just looking at it made her skin sting, and the ice elemental power within her body spontaneously rejected and resisted it.

But Xu Chuan just squatted there, letting the dangerous blood mist surround him, as if nothing was wrong.

No, the blood mist wasn't "surrounding" him, it was "submitting" to him.

Like docile sheep, they obediently flowed into his tears under his control, without the slightest resistance.

Yura held her breath.

A moment later, the Ice Flower's corpse shrank considerably, as if all its moisture had been squeezed out, leaving only a withered shell, barely recognizable by its original shape.

The teardrop, however, became even more profound, with a dark red light flowing within it, exuding an indescribable, eerie beauty.

Xu Chuan stood up and tucked the tears back into his arms.

He looked at Yura and found her staring at him with a complicated expression.

"what happened?"

"I feel like you have more and more secrets about you, making you hard to figure out." Yura looked Xu Chuan straight in the eyes, her tone very serious.

A month ago, he was just someone who needed to protect himself.

Based on her girlish intuition, Yura felt that she was about to have no secrets left from this guy.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the two men's eyes fell on the middle-aged man lying motionless on the ground not far away.

The treasure-hunting gang was dressed in drab, gray clothes, and their exposed skin was purple from the cold.

He just lay there in the snow, like a corpse.

Yura walked over and kicked it with her foot. "This guy is still alive."

"It looks like they were chased here." Xu Chuan squatted down and checked the other person's injuries.

"They're really lucky to have escaped from monsters."

“Not necessarily.” Yura stared warily at the man. “He might be bait.”

Xu Chuan glanced at her and nodded.

The two exchanged a glance and tacitly reached a consensus.

Let's tie them up first.

Yura took out a rope from her backpack and neatly tied the man up securely.

Xu Chuan then carefully searched the person and confirmed that there were no dangerous items hidden on them.

After several attempts to test him, the man did not respond and had indeed fainted.

"Let's go back to camp." Xu Chuan hoisted the man onto his back. "Abedo should be able to get some information out of him."

In the camp at Abedo, the warm firelight dispelled the chill of the snow-capped mountains.

Xu Chuan placed the men from the treasure-hunting group in a corner, while Yura and Sugar sat around the fire, and Abedo was mixing some kind of potion.

"Can he be saved?" Xu Chuan asked.

Without turning his head, Abedo gently shook the test tube in his hand and then poured it into the man's mouth.

“He’s still unconscious,” he said. “But I’ve examined him, and there are indeed signs of monster attacks and frostbite.”

"The injury is real, not faked."

Xu Chuan nodded and sat down by the fire.

"It seems our plan is going to fail."

He was referring to the arrangement of splitting into two teams over the next few days.

One team consisted of Abedo and Sugar, who continued their exploration outside the Starlight Cave.

The other team, consisting of Xu Chuan and Youla, patrolled various parts of the snow-capped mountains, attempting to lure out the fake.

Whether it was his obsession with replacing Abedo or his resentment towards Xu Chuan, it should have made him unable to resist taking action.

“He underestimated his patience,” Abedo said.

“I also underestimated his cunning.” Yura took the hot tea that Sugar handed her and warmed it in her hands.

"If this group of thieves is really bait he's using, then he wants to lure us in."

Xu Chuan nodded.

Please step into the urn.

The counterfeiter is in the shadows, while they are in the open.

The other side has set a trap, waiting for them to fall into it willingly.

This is an open conspiracy.

Even knowing there was an ambush, they still had to go.

Because if we don't get rid of that guy, the consequences will be unimaginable if he grows up or infiltrates Mondstadt.

“Of course, we can’t rule out another possibility,” Xu Chuan suddenly said.

"What?" Yura looked at him.

"This guy really just got lucky and escaped on his own."

After Xu Chuan finished speaking, he couldn't help but laugh.

It was just a relatively normal-sized ice flower that almost killed him.

This group of thieves first confronted the fake Abedo, then escaped the pursuit of the giant ice flower, and somehow managed to be encountered by them alive.

She was truly weak, as if her entire body had been drained dry.

But he had almost no fatal wounds.

This is the biggest flaw.

How could an ordinary person only suffer such minor injuries under those circumstances?

“So,” Abedo finally turned around, leaned against the table, and crossed his arms, “whether he really escaped by sheer luck or was deliberately set up as bait, the result is the same.”

He looked at the man in the corner.

"Once he wakes up, he will tell us where the fake is hiding."

"And then?" Sugar asked softly, "Do we still go even though we know it's a trap?"

Xu Chuan and Abedo exchanged a glance.

"Go." The two said in unison.

The existence of the fake Abedo is a huge threat to both of them, as well as to everyone else.

Moreover, it's not limited to during one's lifetime.

Xu Chuan knew that after this guy died, his body was dug up by resurrected monsters, and in the end, he even gave Mondstadt a big job.

The flickering firelight illuminated their faces.

In the corner, the man from the treasure-hunting gang twitched his finger slightly.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Deep into the Tiger's Den

Aberdo examined it very carefully.

The alchemical instruments gleamed under the lights, and the unconscious man from the treasure-hunting group was examined repeatedly.

Blood samples were taken, skin tests were conducted, and even a special medication was used to test his reaction.

After some effort, Abedo finally raised his head. "There are no signs of alchemical modification. He's a normal person."

Xu Chuan nodded, but his doubts remained.

Normal people can escape from such places.

Either he was incredibly lucky, or he was bait.

Half a day later, the medicine took effect.

The middle-aged man suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for breath like a drowning person surfacing.

His gaze swept around frantically before finally settling on Aberdo.

Then, as if struck by lightning, he recoiled violently, his back slamming against the rock wall with a dull thud.

"No, don't come any closer!"

His voice shrill and distorted, "Please! Don't kill me! I don't know anything! By the wind god, please protect me..."

He mumbled incoherently, huddled in a corner with his hands covering his head, trembling like a leaf.

Yura frowned and stepped forward.

"Hey."

The man looked up, saw Yura's face, and paused for a moment.

"You...you are...from the Lawrence family?"

“Yura Lawrence, captain of the Knights of Favonius guerrilla squad.” Yura crossed her arms and looked down at him. “Look carefully, this is Abedo’s camp. That fake who wanted to kill you isn’t here.”

The surname Lawrence seems to have played a role.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the scenario Yura wanted.

The man trembled as he looked at Abedo, then at Sugar and Xu Chuan, the fear in his eyes gradually replaced by a glimmer of hope.

"R-really? You're not here to kill me?"

"Why would I need to save you if I were to kill you?" Xu Chuan leaned against the table, his tone indifferent. "We have something to ask you."

It took a lot of effort for the man to finally calm down and recount his ordeal in fits and starts.

His name was Hans, and he was a low-level member of the treasure-hunting gang.