He changed Tiwat

Han Fulai clapped his hands gently and said, "That's right. In the end, Han Fei, burdened by his inner struggle, chose to uphold justice, because the spirit of the law is to uphold justice. As the ancient saying in Liyue goes, 'It's not that retribution won't come, it's just that the time hasn't arrived yet.' After the Court of Law investigated, they discovered the true identity of the master thief and determined that he died from a common gangster feud over the division of loot. The story can be considered to have a satisfactory ending."

After listening, Abedo sighed softly, "If I had the chance, I would love to illustrate such a story."

“Sure, if Professor Abedo is willing, I can introduce you to Professor Zhenyu.”

Han Fulai smiled broadly, thinking to himself, "Xingqiu, don't say your big brother doesn't take care of you. Look, I've found you the number one illustrator in Teyvat to collaborate with! Even if you write toilet paper, your illustrations will sell like hotcakes!"

Six months later, at a book signing event, Shirae-sensei, the most popular illustrator for "Yaedo," made the following comment while answering reader questions:

"Teacher Zhenyu's novels are very interesting. I don't think this is 'divine illustrations paired with a dictionary.' Hmm? You want me to collaborate with other authors so that my royalties will be better? Humph, do you think I'm short of that money?"

Now that Yura's attitude was clear, Han Fulai steered the conversation back to the main topic: "Professor Abedo, I think we can talk about the truth of this incident now."

Abedo nodded, then summoned his sword, "Cinnabar Spindle".

He placed his sword on the table.

"That's my reason."

Yura raised an eyebrow: "This sword?"

"What I'm about to say concerns this sword. It was given to me by my master... and only I can unleash its power to fight against that Corruption Sword."

Abedo stroked the hilt of his sword and recited a difficult passage of poetry:

"Joyfully separate the dust from the fire, and refine the exquisite from the coarse."

"Since the universe originates from one thing, the thought of one thing can give rise to all things."

"You must complete the unfinished work of your eldest brother, Bai Jun, who is listed in the register, reach the other side of philosophy, and weave a new destiny for your brother and me..."

Han Fulai frowned slightly. As a transmigrator who knew a lot about the game's background, he had no recollection of this passage—after all, it had never appeared in the main plot of the game.

In fact, although Abeldo appears relatively early in the game, his role is generally peripheral and his presence is weak. Many new players who join later have never even heard of Abeldo. In game events, there have even been many instances where veteran players have Abeldo standing next to NPCs, and new players simply ignore him, treating him as an NPC.

Han Fulai could only deduce that the convoluted words were about alchemy, but as for the specifics... to be honest, he didn't understand them.

Yura was also full of doubts.

Abedo slowly began to speak: “These are the words my master said to me when she handed me the sword. These are her expectations of me, and also the responsibility and obligation I must bear. That’s why I concealed the truth and decided to handle this matter alone—because the ‘white horse’ you speak of, the one who impersonated me and stole the Corrupted Sword and my Alchemy Notebook, is my brother.”

Chapter Ninety-Nine: I Am an Artificial Human

"Wait, you're saying that 'white horse' is your brother? We've never heard of you having a brother... Also, why would a horse be a human's brother? And how did a horse become human? Was it through the alchemical transformation of the Fools? Furthermore, if he's family... why would he frame you and even impersonate you?"

Yura felt that there were too many flaws in what Abedo had just said.

Yes, that's a normal reaction for a normal person.

Abedo looked at Yura: "Yura, you should still remember when I joined the Knights, right?"

Yura nodded.

"Of course I remember. I was there three years ago."

Yura joined the Knights of Favonius four years ago, while Abedo came to Mondstadt three years ago. As a senior member of the Knights, Yura witnessed Abedo joining the Knights—it was impossible not to pay attention, as Abedo was a genius who became a squad leader as soon as he joined the order.

In fact, the promotion system of the Knights of Favonius is generally quite fair. Both Yura and Jean rose to their current positions step by step through merit. Even though Jean is the daughter of the Gunnhildr family, she started as an ordinary knight when she joined the order.

But the person who recommended Abel to join the group was the famous witch, Klee's mother, Iris.

In fact, Alice's worldly identity was merely that of a travel writer, that is, a "writer".

Logically, the Knights shouldn't have needed to follow a writer's instructions to assign a position to the newly arrived Abedor. However, both the Grand Master and other high-ranking members of the Knights took Lady Iris's words very seriously—it's true, if someone could easily alter Mondstadt's terrain and even its ecosystem, their opinions would certainly be taken seriously by all sides.

For the reasons mentioned above, the Knights of Favonius not only accepted Abedo, but also provided him with a fully equipped laboratory, namely the Alchemy Workshop, as requested by Lady Alice. They even specially created a special squad, the "Investigation Squad," for Abedo, with Abedo serving as its first captain.

This matter actually aroused a lot of opposition within the Knights at the time, with the most vehement opposition coming from Nimf, the captain of the Eighth Squad. Before Abedo arrived, the alchemy workshop was used by Miss Lisa, and Captain Nimf only respected Miss Lisa when it came to magical technology. She did not believe that Abedo was qualified to take over the alchemy workshop from Lisa.

But Abelardo captivated everyone with his genius alchemy: he publicly demonstrated the alchemical miracle of growing new flowers from ashes.

Then the question shifted from "whether the little-known Abedor is worthy of the position of Captain of Favonius" to "whether Mondstadt's rudimentary academic research conditions are worthy of Master Abedor"...

"As you know, from that day on, I became a member of the Knights of Favonius... but, in fact, I concealed my identity from everyone."

Abedo paused for a moment, seemingly considering how to organize his thoughts, but he ultimately decided to use the most straightforward language to explain.

"I am an artificial human."

The Knights of Favonius Library, the Forbidden Book Archive.

Compared to the neatly arranged bookshelves and tidy long tables in the reading room outside, the forbidden book archive appears rather cluttered and gloomy. Even with the lights on, there are still some corners that are not illuminated. In other words, it fits people's imagination of a secret room that houses forbidden books. It looks like a haunted place, the kind of place that can easily trigger claustrophobia if you stay there for too long.

Mona had been in the forbidden library for almost a whole morning.

For the past two days, Mona has been diligently serving as a temporary librarian, greeting library readers, helping them register, guiding them to find books, cleaning and organizing bookshelves... She is even starting to get used to the life of a librarian.

As Lisa said, it would be too much work for one person to organize such a sea of ​​books. Mona even doubted whether a single human being could really organize so many books into categories within their lifetime.

Although both Mona and Lisa inherited the title of witch, they are not immortal beings, unlike Alice and Barbieros who have lived for a very long time. However, Lisa has undoubtedly read through all the books here—this is beyond what can be explained by skimming; even reading with the "Crimson King" technique, like some online novel readers, might not be enough to finish them all.

If Mona knew about some strange legend from Han Fulai's world, she might doubt whether Lisa had truly mastered the "Quantum Speed ​​Reading Method"...

Moreover, given Lisa's usual lazy demeanor, it's really hard to imagine how she managed to finish reading all those books.

It seems that her hard work over the past two days finally moved Lisa, because Lisa opened the forbidden library to her, the temporary administrator, today.

But Mona quickly discovered a problem upon entering the forbidden library: the books inside weren't arranged neatly and labeled like outside. It was more like a storage room, with the so-called forbidden books haphazardly piled up in various places.

—After all, during the Mondstadt royal era, the books here were all destined to be destroyed, and it is already very fortunate that they were preserved intact by the magic of the previous witch.

Later, the Minz family, the court mages who had served the rulers of Lawrence, were driven out of Mondstadt, and it wasn't until Lisa's generation that they were able to return.

Therefore, these banned books were left unattended for a long time, which is why they ended up in this chaotic and in dire need of organization...

Lisa, who took over the management, must have exhausted herself just organizing the books outside—well, after all, she's already an old lady, so it's normal for her to lack energy. Mona secretly thought to herself.

In short, without Lisa's guidance, finding the information she wanted in this forbidden library, which contains 2,600 years of Mondstadt's history, would be more difficult than graduating from the old woman's tutelage. At least Mona felt that even if the old woman herself used water magic, she might not be able to find what she wanted in this library.

This is also where Lisa's wickedness lies.

Although she gave Mona access to the forbidden library to search for information, she never said she would help her find it.

Whether Mona can find the information in the vast sea of ​​books depends entirely on her own abilities. If she can't, she'll just have to continue working for Lisa for free.

Of course, if Mona had asked Lisa for help properly, Lisa probably would have helped her... but this is a matter of a witch's pride, pride! As the successor of a witch, the greatest astrologer of the future, how could she easily bow down to another witch's successor?

Unwilling to give up, Mona has been searching through the sea of ​​books for almost half a day, but unfortunately, she has found nothing so far.

At that moment, Lisa entered the library carrying tea and snacks.

"It's afternoon tea time, little Mona. Come and have a drink with your big sister?"

Mona stretched and took the teacup that Lisa handed her.

"Thank you, Lisa... sister."

Chapter 100 The Man in the Bottle

If Mona ever calls Lisa "sister," it's during afternoon tea time—Lisa's homemade afternoon tea is arguably the best in Mondstadt, and Mona is always very honest about her appetite.

During their casual conversation, the two talked about Han Fulai's trip to the snow mountain.

It's been three days since he set off for Dragon Ridge Snow Mountain. Judging by the distance, he should have reached his destination by now. I wonder if he has successfully met the alchemist Abedo?

Thinking of this, Mona asked, "What kind of person is Abedo, Rheindorf's disciple?"

It would be impossible for Mona not to be curious about the heir to the "golden" Rheindorf.

In other people's eyes, Abeldo was like a perfect scholar, refined and modest, and uncontested by the world... But, something just doesn't feel right. He's the heir to the "gold"!

“Sister, I think Abedo is an excellent alchemist. No matter what the problem is, he can get a good conclusion with just a few words. And he’s handsome too. Hmm, if you want to understand him, why don’t you try divination?” Lisa said with a smile.

"Oh right!" Mona slapped her forehead.

Since arriving in Mondstadt, her water divination has consistently failed to yield any results for those she encounters.

First came the Descendant, Luminous, then Han Fulai. Oh, and we should also add Paimon, although she didn't tell Luminous, she secretly did a divination on Paimon as well.

Paimon is just as strange as Han Fulai; no matter what method she uses, she can't find a trace of fate. Neither of them has a "Seat of Fate." Maybe Paimon came from outside too?

Then there's Barbatos, the wind god who loves to play pranks, and the skirmishers, the enforcers of the Fatui, plus Fischl and Lisa... well, if you count them all, they've almost never succeeded!

After a series of setbacks, Mona was almost losing confidence and nearly forgot that she could predict Abedo's fate.

Although Abedo is also a successor of the witch, it is very likely that the result of the divination will be as vague as that of Lisa... But how can a great astrologer give up without trying?

Mona quickly summoned the Water Plate.

This time, her divination went smoothly, and Abedo's natal chart was quickly revealed on the water divination plate.

"This...this is..."

The image of the constellation was very clear, and Mona could see it very clearly, but because of this, she even felt fear.

Because Abedo's constellation is depicted as a fetus inside a flask.

“He is a ‘Homuncular’!” Mona exclaimed.

"I am an artificial human."

Seven simple words almost made Yura spill her teacup.

Homunculi... is that what she meant? Like creating objects using alchemy... But... can humans create humans using alchemy?

Aberdo paid no attention to the audience's reaction and continued speaking on his own.

"The one who created me was my mother and teacher—the Kanrean scholar, 'Gold' Rheindort. The fusion of supreme alchemy and unparalleled knowledge... its ultimate goal is the creation of 'humanity.' If we're talking about national identity... I should actually be considered a Kanrean, right?"

"'Golden' Rheindorf, the legendary sinner who caused the 'Dark Calamity'..."

Yura realized she had accidentally said something she shouldn't have in front of Abedo and quickly stopped, but soon her eyes widened again.

"Wait, wasn't Kanria destroyed five hundred years ago? You wouldn't... be five hundred years old?"

Aberdo shook his head.

“I am indeed older than I look. However, when I was born, Kanria had been destroyed for a long time, and I have no memories of it.”

Han Fulai's expression remained unchanged. He knew everything Abedo had said; he even knew Daines Reeb, the captain of the Kanria court guard, the "End of Light." The number of Kanria survivors after its destruction was far greater than people imagined; at least in Winterfall, Liyue, and Mondstadt, many Kanria survivors had been taken in…

What he cared more about was what Abedo had just said: "The ultimate goal of alchemy is the creation of 'man'."

As expected, this is the same as Liyue's "Heaven and Earth Cage Test".

Han Fulai recalled the information that Tianyi, the AI ​​left behind by Gui Zhong, had once revealed—

"In fact, such simulations are still involved in the alchemy techniques of the Liyue Clan. The essence of the immortals' alchemy is to simulate the state of chaos at the beginning, when the pure and the impure were not separated and heaven and earth were one. It is a microcosm of the creation of heaven and earth. However, this technology is not yet mature, so the things that are refined can only be used as enhancement materials. If it can be completely simulated, it can actually achieve the highest achievement in alchemy - 'Homunculi'."

The bio-alchemy that Abedo's student Sugar is conducting regarding "Wonderland" is actually a small-scale "creation." Meanwhile, Abedo's teacher, Rheindoth, has already created the finished "homo-human."

...Has that "Golden" Rheindorf reached the ultimate level of alchemy...? Has she already been able to "create the world"?

“My teacher raised me and imparted knowledge to me. Like her, I am a pure alchemist, living for academic knowledge. Country and identity are not everything to us. In fact, I would prefer to call Mondstadt my homeland.” Abedo’s expression was very sincere.

The people of the seven nations of Teyvat deeply resented the "dark calamity" caused by Kanria, and Mondstadt felt it most acutely.

Five hundred years ago, during the "Dark Calamity," the Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, known as the "Lion of Light" and the greatest swordsman of all time, along with the Vice-Grand Master "Young Wolf" Rustan, led the Knights of Favonius on an expedition to Kanria to protect the continent of Teyvat.

—The captain, vice-captain, the tenth squad, and all the elites of the Knights of Favonius were dispatched, but in the end, only Captain Erendelyn returned. Overwhelmed by this devastating blow, Erendelyn abandoned his sword and went into seclusion, his whereabouts unknown.

Because of the devastating losses suffered during the expedition to Kelia, when the dragon Durin attacked later, the Knights of Favonius were unable to muster any significant fighting force to resist, and could only rely on the wind god Barbatos to fight Dvalin to the death. This led to Dvalin being later contaminated by poisonous blood, resulting in the "Dragon Plague".

From this perspective, as creations of Rhinedoth who brought the beast tide and descendants of Kanria, Abedor and the Knights of Favonius should have been mortal enemies...

This is also why Aberdo had to conceal his identity—the shocking nature of his identity as a homunculus was secondary; the key point was that he was Rheindorf's "son."

Chapter 101 The Navel of the Artificial Human

The blood feud between Canria and Mondstadt from five hundred years ago has yet to be resolved. If a Knight of Favonius whose ancestor participated in the expedition five hundred years ago were here, he would probably see Abedor as a remnant of the beast tide from the "Black Calamity" and seek revenge against Abedor.

That's why Abedo sincerely explained to Yura that he and Kanria actually didn't have much of a relationship.

Fortunately, the person sitting here now is none other than Yura.

The Lawrence family was expelled from Mondstadt five hundred years ago. If there's any family in Mondstadt that has no grudge against Rhinedoth... well, that's the Lawrence family. To be a little cynical, the Lawrence family might even thank Rhinedoth for helping them take revenge on the Knights of Favonius...

As fellow "descendants of sinners," born burdened with original sin, Yura even felt a sense of kinship with Abedo.

Hearing what Abedo had just said, Yura gave a self-deprecating smile: "Heh, don't worry, I hate that 'sons pay for their fathers' sins' nonsense the most. What your relatives did is none of your business. Look, I'm a member of the Lawrence family, and I still joined the Knights of Favonius, didn't I?"

Han Fulai's lips curled slightly, which was one of the reasons he firmly believed that Yura would help Abedo—empathy.

Once Abedor's true identity is revealed, his position in Mondstadt will instantly become just as precarious as that of the Lawrence family. Yura perhaps understands this most deeply in all of Mondstadt, making her the most likely to empathize with Abedor's predicament.

As he said before, "birds of a feather flock together." Once Yura developed a sense of identification with Abedo, this "united front of sinners" was fully formed.

"Thank you, Yura." Abedo thanked Yura earnestly. Although Yura might not have thought she had said anything worth thanking him for, these words were actually very important to Abedo.