He changed Tiwat

What would Inazuma be like if the shogunate didn't have Raiden Shogun?

Ying forced a smile: "I understand what you're trying to say."

"But if the so-called 'dream' is truly eternal, then the general's non-existence of 'moment' is nothing to fear."

"If it is for the sake of Inazuma's infinite future, no matter how long my battle is, it will be just a moment in 'eternity'."

“I promise the people of Inazuma that I will return. You are my witness to this promise.”

"But...but if this happens..."

Before Paimon could say anything more, Shadow brought up "Dream Together" again.

A flash of purple light appeared.

A rift appeared in space again, sucking Ying and Paimon into it.

This is a spatial passage forcibly opened up by Ying with "a single, thoughtless strike".

"Whoa—!" Paimon experienced that dizzying feeling once again.

Ying reached out, trying to pull Ying away from this space... but Ying's figure had already disappeared.

All she heard was Ying's final words: "While I'm gone, everything is in your hands."

When Ying opened her eyes again, she was back in the cave in the mountains.

The vermilion torii gate is still embedded in the stone wall, but the entrance to the space of consciousness can no longer be found anywhere.

"We've been kicked out, haven't we...? What do we do now? Are we really going to let Shadow and the General keep fighting inside?"

Paimon held his head in his hands, his face filled with worry.

The dizziness from traversing space hadn't subsided, but she couldn't care less.

"If this continues, something will happen to Ying sooner or later!"

Even Paimon, who was not skilled in martial arts, knew that no matter how skilled Shadow was, it would be useless against an opponent who could resurrect infinitely. The Puppet General could fail countless times, but Shadow could not fail even once; failure meant death.

This is not a fair duel at all.

“But… we can’t go in now.” Ying stroked the torii gate in front of her.

It now appears to be just an ordinary wooden frame, having lost its divine connection between the two worlds.

Paimon paced back and forth: "If I want to help her, I have to go inside first. What should I do, what should I do, should I try bumping into her..."

Ying glanced at Paimon: "Use your head to bang it?"

"Hmm... Use my head to bang it..."

Paimon, head down, nearly bumped into a torii gate pillar before realizing what was happening: "Wow, Ying, you still have the mind to joke with me at a time like this!"

Ying patted Paimon's head: "I have a way to get in, but first, we have to finish our work as 'side servants', right?"

Paimon looked at her suspiciously: "You really have a way?"

"Really, when have I ever lied to you?" Ying said with certainty.

Paimon counted on his fingers: "You've fooled me so many times, for example..."

Ying grabbed Paimon's cloak: "Don't worry, I said I have a way, and I mean I have a way—but even if we go in now, we still can't help Shangying, can we? Let's go find Linghua first. We need to inform her and her brother about this."

Han Fulai sat under the cherry tree, resting his chin on his hand, striking that "Thinker" pose that he hadn't done in a long time.

In this quiet space, no one would disturb his thoughts.

He has been holding this position for a long time.

Although there are no timekeeping tools in the consciousness space, and ordinary clocks are useless here, he has his own "timekeeping tool" that will never make a mistake - "the seed of time".

Now, the white light band of time surrounds him, accompanying him during his long contemplation.

Two hours have passed since the divine child disappeared.

During those two hours, all he did was think and wait.

Yes, wait.

Before the goddess disappeared, she told him that there were many versions of her from different eras in this space.

Just as he "traveled" to the consciousness space of five hundred years ago, the Divine Child also traveled to a different era. However, he traveled as his "main body," while the Divine Child traveled as a kind of "clone."

This might sound unbelievable at first glance, but Han Fulai wasn't particularly surprised, because it wasn't the first time he'd heard of such a thing.

The second-in-command of the Fools of the Winter Kingdom, the "Doctor," also possesses a similar ability to create clones.

The "Doctor" who infiltrated the Inazuma Sand Factory more than four hundred years ago; the "Doctor" who went to Mondstadt to subdue the dragon Usa a year ago; and the "Doctor" who wanted to invade Qingxu Pool in Liyue... Although they are all "Doctors" themselves, they are people of different ages.

The Doctor has divided himself into separate individuals from different periods of his life, who then wander around the continent of Teyvat.

According to the "scattered soldiers," the "doctor" calls this technique of segmenting individuals into different time periods "slicing."

The divine child in this space is actually a "slice".

What just disappeared before his eyes was a "slice" from five hundred years ago—but the divine child from other time periods still exists.

Han Fu looked around.

Beside him, side by side, lay the Salt Sorrow Spear and the Kagura Bell.

For him, these two things were the necessary tools to save the divine child.

After obtaining the Kagura Bell, Han Fulai carefully examined this key item left to him by the divine child—the Kagura Bell is a three-tiered round tower, with three bells hanging on each tier, for a total of nine bells.

Except for the bell at the top, which has returned to its original cherry blossom color, the other eight are still black, entangled by the power of evil.

Clearly, these bells are related to the "Divine Cherry Blossom Great Exorcism".

In terms of quantity, the "Divine Cherry Blossom Great Exorcism" mission is currently one-ninth complete.

The "Divine Cherry Blossom Great Purification" is a cycle of sixty years. It has been performed eight times since the "Dark Calamity" five hundred years ago, and if we include this one, it will be the ninth time.

Based on this, Han Fulai made a hypothesis:

Each bell on the Kagura bell represents a shrine maiden who is presiding over the "Great Purification Ritual of the Divine Cherry Blossom".

The goddess presided over the "Great Purification of the Divine Cherry Blossom" nine times, and the number of bells was exactly nine, a perfect match.

This means that he needs to "exorcise" the divine child nine times to complete this "Great Divine Cherry Blossom Exorcism"—at the same time, it also means that he has at least eight more chances to save the divine child.

The bell rang.

A bell at the top of the Kagura Bell swayed gently on its own, even without wind.

The cherry tree behind him vanished in that instant.

Before the divine cherry blossoms disappeared, the scattered petals laid out a small path that stretched in a certain direction.

Han Fulai picked up the Kagura Bell and the Salt Sorrow Spear and walked onto the cherry blossom path.

Chapter 236: One Issue, One Session [4k]

When Ying and Paimon rushed back to the Kamisato House, it was exactly midnight.

Normally, most people would have already gone to bed by this time, but the Kamisato Yashiki was still brightly lit.

With the "Radiant Splendor Festival" approaching, both the shrine magistrate and Narukami Taisha have been extremely busy lately, often working overtime. Adding to this, the recent attacks by "Beast Hounds" and the unusual events surrounding the roots of the Divine Cherry Tree have kept the siblings, Ayato and Ayaka, so busy they haven't had a moment to rest.

Of course, even putting all that aside, since the general himself has personally helped the magistrate clean up the filth, how could his subordinates dare to slack off?

When they met Ayaka, she was patrolling near the camp with the retainers of the Kamisato family. To protect the Kagura Tree, the Kamisato family, including the "Final Squad," had deployed all their forces, with Ayaka, the young lady, fighting on the front lines to prevent any monster from crossing the defenses.

When Linghua saw Ying and Paimon return, she was initially delighted, but then she realized something was wrong—there were four of them when they left, but only two returned… Where are the General and Mr. Han?

Ying's expression was unusually serious: "I have the General's orders to convey to the Shaman Magistrate. Also, I need the 'Divine Sword' that was originally held by the Kujo family, 'The Return of the Mist' - it should be in Sara's hands now."

The two generals are "dueling" in the space of consciousness, and Inazuma may lose the Raiden General... Such a thing cannot be said in front of the retainers of the Kamisato family.

Although Ying is not knowledgeable in political affairs, she was the captain of the "Swordfish Second Division" on Haizhi Island and helped Xin Hai carry out several secret missions. At least she knows that some things are better known to as few people as possible.

For now, Ying only plans to inform Ayato and Ayaka, and at most, Sara.

Without asking any further questions, Ayaka immediately sent someone to the city to retrieve the sword, while she herself went to the "Forest of Guardians" to recall Ayato, who was patrolling there.

After Ayaka left with her entourage, Paimon finally voiced the question that had been lingering in his mind: "Why did you ask Ayaka to find 'The Return of the Mist'? Is this related to the method you mentioned for entering the consciousness space?"

Yingmei nodded: "Yes, we'll go in the same way we came out."

Paimon paused for a moment, then suddenly realized: "You mean... 'The Strike Without Thought'?"

The spatial passage through which they initially entered the consciousness space was opened by Ying using divine power to break the seal, but that passage disappeared after they entered the consciousness space.

The spatial passage that later brought them back was created by Shadow using "The Unthinking Blade"—only "The Unthinking Blade," which can cleave through space, could forcibly open up a spatial passage.

Ying's method is to imitate Ying's approach and use "a thoughtless slash" to create another spatial gap.

"With my current strength, I can't unleash the true 'Unthinking One Slash' yet—but I've heard Sara say that the 'Mist-Cutting Reflection' was once the sword of the Shadow, containing the Shadow's divine power. If I can unleash the power of that sword, I should be able to do the same thing as the Shadow."

Paimon clapped his hands: "I didn't realize you were so smart, Ying!"

Ying grabbed Paimon's cheek: "Do you really think I'm stupid?"

"Waaah... I'm sorry... I love letting go..." Paimon quickly begged for mercy.

After the playful banter, Ying regained her serious expression: "Paimon, after Ayaka and the others bring the swords, I'll trouble you to train with me for a while longer."

"Huh? Cultivation?" Paimon was surprised again. "Who has time for that now!"

“Yes.” Ying looked at Paimon very seriously. “Do you remember? We arrived at the Wasteland at nightfall today. In that underground palace, we met someone who looked a lot like Ichidou, fought a mechanical monster, and chatted with that fox-eyed Onmyoji for a long time…”

"After that, we searched the cave for a while before entering the consciousness space. As far as I remember, it was quite late when we entered the consciousness space, and we later fought the puppet general for a long time..."

"But after going through so much, we haven't even spent the night since we came out of the consciousness space. Don't you find that strange?"

"Ah!" After Ying's reminder, Paimon finally understood, "That consciousness space is the same as Shadow's 'Pure Land of One Mind,' the flow of time is different from the outside world!"

“Yes.” Ying nodded again. “No matter how much time passes inside, it feels like only a moment outside… While we’re talking here, Ying may have been fighting the Puppet General for countless days…”

"Shouldn't we have gone in even sooner?" Paimon asked anxiously.

“But if we just go in like this, will we be able to help Ying?” Ying countered. “I am no different now than I was a few hours ago. I couldn’t defeat the Puppet General a few hours ago, and I can’t now either. Even if we go in, we’ll only cause trouble for Ying.”

“Shadow said that no matter how long it takes or how many battles there are, she will defeat the Puppet General. She said she believes in the people of Inazuma and in us, so we should believe in her too.”

“And…” she pointed to the barb mark on her shoulder, “Although Shadow no longer transmits power to me, this mark still connects me to her. I can sense that she is still fighting hard, and at least for the time being, she is not in danger.”

“I see…” Paimon finally understood what Ying meant: “But even if I start training with you now, how long will it take you to train? A day? A month? Or even longer? No matter how much you train, it will be difficult for you to catch up with General Thunder, right?”

“Of course it’s not ordinary training.” Ying raised her head and looked at Ying Xiangshan not far away: “The ‘Anti-Lightning General Special Training’ device that the Divine Child made should still work… Paimon, help me control the training device and attack me with the strongest output.”

Paimon waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, that device is too dangerous!"

She accompanied Ying throughout the entire "Anti-Lightning General Training." During Ying's training, it was Paimon, the "supervisor," who was responsible for activating the devices and adjusting the difficulty for her.

But at that time, the Divine Child deliberately set the device's output power to the lowest level, so that even if she was electrocuted, she would only feel a tingling sensation, like touching a Rei slime...

However, if the output is set to the highest level—Paimon asked the Divine Child, and according to the Divine Child, its power is comparable to the thunderstorm that covers the outer sea of ​​Inazuma.

Getting struck by a lightning bolt can really kill you!

Ying smiled fearlessly: "Don't worry, I'm the legendary blonde traveler!"

Paimon tilted his head: "Uh... what does this have to do with hair color?"

Ying's smile grew even brighter: "What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!"

Following the cherry blossoms, Han Fulai saw the sacred cherry tree again.

Unlike before, this time what appeared in front of the sacred cherry tree was not Narukami Shrine, but a small tea room.

The teahouse's signboard reads "Ru'an".

Han Fulai had never seen this teahouse, either in the game or in reality—it must have been a place that appeared and disappeared over the past few hundred years.

The exterior of "Ruan" looks more classical than "Wooden Leak Tea Room". Its entrance is not the paper partition door that is common in Inazuma now, but is located in the center of the wall, more than a foot off the ground, and looks like a window.

In fact, the entrance was only the size of a normal window, just two feet in length and width. Tea drinkers had to bend over and crawl on their knees to enter.

This is the ancient tea ceremony rule of Inazuma, representing "respect" among "harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility." It means that no matter whether the guest is a samurai or a commoner, they must forget their status in the world and become a pure tea drinker with a humble attitude.

After pausing and observing for a moment in front of the teahouse, Han Fulai put away the Kagura Bell and the Salt Sorrow Spear, took off his shoes, and ducked into the narrow entrance.

The tea room was small and dimly lit, with only a small fire in the center providing illumination.

The interior furnishings are extremely simple: a four-and-a-half-tatami floor, a few tea sets, a hearth for brewing tea, and a black ceramic vase with flowers in it, that's all.

But within this simple decoration lies a rather profound artistic conception.