Genshin Impact: The Beginning of the Wind

Even Su Feng, after his initial curiosity subsided, grew tired of these seemingly endless harassments.

After all, even if he couldn't be hurt by these troubles, he was still annoyed by them.

Imagine admiring a beautiful flower and suddenly being bitten by a crocodile that jumps out – how wonderful would that be?

However, just as he was about to transform into a breeze and leave the rainforest, he suddenly discovered a rather strange aura inexplicably entering his senses. Su Feng, who vaguely sensed something interesting from it, immediately stopped and looked in the direction he had sensed with great interest.

"This is...interesting, let's go take a look!"

"After all, it's already been delivered right to our doorstep."

Su Feng paused, muttered something to himself in a voice only he could hear, and before he could finish speaking, he disappeared into the silent yet noisy rainforest.

......

"Hoo~ho~ho~"

"What...what's going on? A dead zone has suddenly appeared here too?"

"The Dead Zone is expanding so fast now?"

Kolei never expected that she would simply be patrolling the road at the edge of the rainforest as usual, but instead stumble upon the formation of a brand new dead zone. What's worse, with the formation of the dead zone, the monsters born from it naturally set their sights on her as she entered.

Even without knowing why, the monsters born from this suddenly appearing Dead Zone are far more powerful than ordinary Dead Zone monsters. The hideous Dead Zone branches and huge Dead Zone tumors are constantly spreading terrifying and corrupt forbidden power.

Driven and controlled by this power, the corrupted monsters charged madly toward Kolai.

This is undoubtedly a life-or-death crisis!

Although Cole is the holder of the Eye of God, unfortunately, the power that Cole can exert is quite weak, as he is plagued by the Demon Scale Disease and was once possessed by the resentment of the Demon God.

Let alone fighting, even in daily life, there could be abnormalities that make it impossible for her to live alone.

Moreover, even normal users of the Eye of God must be careful when facing the Dead Zone, otherwise their lives may be in danger.

What about her?

Kolei could barely draw her longbow by gritting her teeth, and she had to forcefully squeeze out a little grass elemental power from her body. But when facing monsters eroded by the Dead Zone, she was no different from a small boat in the face of a raging storm.

When she felt the trembling weakness coming from her body, a trace of despair appeared on Ke Lai's face.

"I'm sorry, Master Tinari, Amber, I may not be able to continue."

"I hope you won't be too sad."

Cole knew she was now in dire straits, and that she had no chance of escaping from such a terrifying monster on her own.

However, perhaps because of the many terrible things she had experienced in her childhood, Cole, who was already prepared for death, was not so afraid of her own death, but worried about making others sad because of her—even though that day was bound to come sooner or later.

But... dying at the hands of a monster seems quite fitting for his identity as a forest ranger?

In these final moments, Cora seemed to have accepted her fate, but even so, she forced herself to draw her bow and begin to gather her last elemental power.

Since survival is impossible, let's prove we're qualified as forest rangers with a spectacular finale, and also let Professor Tinari know that a dead zone has appeared here...

"Giving up so quickly? Is it because you're too weak?"

"Well, that's true. My body is almost completely drained. It's already quite an achievement that I can stand here!"

However, just as Cole was preparing to unleash her final colors and glory, a clear voice suddenly entered her ears. Before she could recover from the sudden sound, a sharp wind, mixed with a terrifying fog of death, abruptly fell from the sky.

No matter how powerful a monster is, it's still just a monster.

The dead zone, symbolizing death and taboo on earth, is indeed equally troublesome, but it is nothing more than a wave of the hand in the face of the power to truly divide and decompose all things.

What Cole was seeing now was this scene—after the wind and black mist swept by, those maddened monsters turned into dust that could be blown away with a single breath in the face of this powerful force. By the time she finally came to her senses, the monsters that had driven her to the brink of despair had been easily eliminated.

The only person standing before him now was a handsome young man, who was now observing the joints and massive tumors of the Dead Zone with great interest.

"Be careful, that's a dead zone. If you stay inside for too long, you'll be corrupted by its power!"

Upon seeing the boy, her instincts as a ranger compelled Kolei to utter those words, but as soon as she spoke, she remembered that this suddenly appearing boy had turned many powerful monsters to dust with a mere wave of his hand.

Does such a powerful being really need her to remind him of this?

Thinking of this, a blush crept onto Cole's face, and she froze on the spot.

"You're such a good child... I've seen so much pain and suffering in you, but even so, you're still willing to think about and worry about others?"

The boy who suddenly appeared was naturally Su Feng. After observing the dead zone in front of him for a while, he casually waved his hand, and with his movement, the lightning that suddenly fell instantly turned the entire dead zone into a purple expanse.

After the lightning dissipated, the original massive dead zone had long since disappeared. The only thing left to prove that something had happened there was a huge, deep pit that was constantly flashing with lightning and was rich in lightning elemental power.

However, Su Feng didn't care about the deep pit he had casually created, which resembled the one between the Wuxiang Blade Gorge. He was more concerned about the timid and hesitant Ke Lai in front of him.

It's really interesting; we've only just arrived in Sumeru and it seems like we've already encountered some interesting things.

Chapter 5: The Ear-Fox Appears

"Um... thank you for saving my life. May I ask who you are...?"

Not being used to interacting with people, Ke Lai asked Su Feng somewhat cautiously after seeing him.

Although she might seem a bit impolite in her current state, simply asking for the other person's name was already a huge effort for Cole, after all, someone who could resolve a massive dead zone in an instant was undoubtedly a powerful figure.

At least Cole was certain that no one she knew could do that, and for Cole, who was already known for her social anxiety, to still speak at this point was quite brave.

Even under normal circumstances, it takes courage for her to communicate properly, let alone in this situation.

"Just call me Su Feng. You seem like a very interesting girl. Now it's your turn to tell me your name."

Su Feng could certainly see Ke Lai's cautiousness, but he didn't pay too much attention to Ke Lai's attitude. In comparison, he was more interested in Ke Lai's current state, which resembled a meeting of radishes.

After all, not everyone can live well with so many messy things mixed in their body.

In particular, the aura emanating from Ke Lai's body, which seemed to belong to another world, puzzled Su Feng greatly.

With something like this already out, shouldn't Tianli (the Heavenly Principles) do something about it? Or has Tianli's situation deteriorated to the point where they can't even handle this anymore?

“I…my name is Ke Lai, and I am a forest ranger near Huacheng Guo.”

"Thank you so much for saving me."

When faced with Su Feng's question, Cole hesitated at first, but quickly realized that she was no match for Su Feng and temporarily lowered her guard. After all, given the strength Su Feng was showing, he could probably take her down in an instant if needed.

To put it bluntly, at least in Ke Lai's memory, there was no one in the entire Sumeru who could stop Su Feng from doing anything.

However, due to her personality, Cole remained extremely hesitant and cautious when speaking.

"Kolei? Can I know what happened to you? I can sense that a part of the Demon God's resentment still lingers in you—it seems someone forcibly injected this remnant of the Demon God into your body, but at the same time, another force within you is constantly draining your life force..."

"In my opinion, it's almost unbelievable that you've survived this long."

"It seems the person who treated you is very skilled."

Su Feng casually shared his opinion, but upon hearing Su Feng's question, Ke Lai's expression immediately turned sour, because Su Feng had almost ruthlessly reopened Ke Lai's wounds.

Even now, when Cole recalls those experiences, she still can't control her emotions.

If Su Feng hadn't just saved her life, she probably would have turned around and left right now.

"..."

Klei, whose scars had been reopened and who was reminded of some unpleasant memories, couldn't help but lower his head. After seeing Klei's appearance, Su Feng realized that he might have gone a bit too far. However, he couldn't be blamed for this, since he hadn't had much interaction with mortals so far. Most of the time, he was just following Wendy and hanging out with the drunkards of Mondstadt.

It's really asking too much of a group of drunkards to have any social skills after they've gotten drunk.

As for the gods—the gods don't shy away from talking about what happened in the past, after all, they've gotten used to it after experiencing so much.

This is, in itself, the greatest tragedy for the gods.

"If possible, let me discuss this with you, since those memories are too painful for Cole."

Just as Su Feng was hesitating whether he should apologize and leave, another voice suddenly broke the silence between the two. When Su Feng turned to look, what he saw was a strange creature that was almost using its hands and feet to rush over from the rainforest. Yes, it was indeed a strange creature, at least Su Feng knew that when he saw the long ears on its head.

However, there are quite a few demi-human races like Teyvat with some animalistic features, so he didn't pay too much attention to it.

Even the seemingly adorable bartender at the Cat Tail Tavern has a tail and cat ears, so it's not surprising that one would appear in Sumeru as well.

The main reason was that after seeing the other person appear, Cole, who had been looking down, suddenly raised her head and showed a look of surprise. It was clear that the person who came was very important to Cole and trustworthy.

"Master Tinari, what brings you here?"

"Are you okay?"

Kolei was genuinely surprised that Tinaly would appear so quickly, especially after seeing the other party's almost continuous panting after finally regaining his footing. He walked over to the other party with considerable concern.

"It's alright, I'm just a little out of breath, I'll be fine in a bit. But Cole, are you alright?"

After seeing the worry in Cole's eyes, Tinari took a deep breath and forced himself to look a little more normal. He first looked his student up and down, and only felt a little relieved after confirming that Cole did not appear to be injured at least on the surface.

Upon learning that a dead zone had appeared where Kolei was on a mission, he rushed over at top speed almost immediately. However, even Tinari, who was most familiar with the rainforest, still expended a lot of energy at such a high speed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so breathless when it first appeared.

Even so, he still used some of his grass elemental power to create a simple healing spell and cast it on Kolai. He only relaxed after seeing the emerald green light slowly enter Kolai's body.

Only then did Tinali have the energy to turn his attention to Su Feng, who had been leaning against a tree trunk with his arms crossed, waiting for him to finish everything since he appeared.

"Thank you very much for saving my student. I am Tinari, a scholar of the Kyoryo-in School of Theory and a forest ranger of Kagajo Kagoshima."

"If there's anything you'd like to know, then perhaps I can answer your questions."

The young man from the Barogashuna clan, who had become a renowned scholar and was even once referred to as the 'Great Forest Ranger' by many forest rangers, said these words earnestly to Su Feng.

Chapter Six: Tina's Excitement

Although Tinali said he would answer Su Feng's question, they didn't just stand there chatting like idiots in the rainforest.

After confirming that Su Feng had easily dealt with the dead zone, Tinali invited Su Feng to visit Huacheng Guo. Su Feng, who was quite interested in Ke Lai's situation, agreed.

Then, upon arriving at Huachengguo, he was astonished to see this small town where humans and the rainforest seemed to be perfectly integrated.

There weren't many people living in Huacheng Guo, but the scattered wooden houses, roads, docks, and towering trees were all blended together quite well. Su Feng, who had always been used to cities filled with purely artificial things, was almost stunned when he first saw this small town.

"It's a beautiful place. You've blended the rainforest and the city so well. I've never seen a human settlement like this before."

After admiring the town in front of him for a while, Su Feng couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"Of course. Although Huacheng Guo doesn't have many residents, it is definitely the most suitable place for recuperation in the entire Sumeru. I would even say that there is no better place to live in the entire Teyvat."

When Tinaly spoke of this, a look of pride was clearly on his face.

This is the place he chose to protect. Although Tina is not yet certain of Su Feng's identity, after inquiring about the details with Kolai during their journey, they are certain that Su Feng is definitely a top-tier expert.

After all, not everyone can easily eliminate a huge dead zone.