Genshin Impact: The Beginning of the Wind

"Ahem, let's get going. After all, standing around chatting in the desert isn't a good idea."

"As for the rest, we can talk about it later."

Just as everyone fell silent again, it was Tirzad who stepped forward to smooth things over—he didn't really care about the so-called Spirit-Suppressing Bloodline, after all, he was just an archaeologist, not someone who was involved in biological cultivation.

After he spoke, the previously tense atmosphere eased considerably.

"In that case, let's set off first, to the Crimson King's Mausoleum."

"I need to go to the Crimson King's Mausoleum to confirm some things before I can try to open Aru. If you don't mind, you can come with me to see the mausoleum that the Crimson King prepared for himself."

Having been reminded by Tirzad again, Su Feng also noticed the abnormality and began to arrange the subsequent itinerary. Upon hearing this, Tirzad's eyes lit up instantly. If he hadn't remembered Su Feng's mystery and power, he probably would have clung to Su Feng's leg on the spot.

"The Crimson King's Tomb? In that case, let's set off as soon as possible. If possible, I'd like to resolve these matters sooner rather than later."

Seno, who had also come to his senses, urged him a little, and Elhesen, who had been standing quietly to the side, nodded in agreement.

"In that case, let's set off!"

Soon, the wind enveloped them all again, and then their figures disappeared completely into the vast yellow sand.

Chapter Nineteen: "Damn it, I got scammed!"

The current Red King's Mausoleum is simply a huge spectacle—although it is said to be the tomb of the Red King, it is clear that even those desert people who consider themselves followers of the Red King do not really regard this place as their own holy site.

These guys themselves were eyeing the Crimson King's Tomb and hoping to seize its power.

Unfortunately, the light realm technology left behind by the Crimson King and the Flower King, originating from the heavens, is not something that mortals can easily crack. This collection of mysterious technologies and powers from the heavens is virtually impossible for mortals to master—in fact, to this day, very few people have been able to enter the Crimson King's Tomb.

Otherwise, the scholars of the Academy would have made this place a popular spot for taking photos long ago.

Even centuries after the fall of the Crimson King and the collapse of the desert civilization, the powerful light barrier surrounding the Crimson King's Mausoleum and the numerous elemental machines still faithfully guard this place.

However, such protection may be very useful for mortals, but if necessary, it is not impossible for a god-level being to forcibly break through it.

More importantly, when facing Su Feng, these things that use the power of the light realm as their energy source and foundation are not so useful.

"Crack!"

In the vast plaza in front of the Crimson King's Mausoleum, Su Feng waved his hand and crushed the Yuan Energy Machinery patrolling the area, breaking open its core. Then, a faint light was released from the core.

Su Feng remained silent for a moment after seeing the ray of light, but soon he stretched out his palm and caught the lingering glow.

After falling into Su Feng's palm, the faint light flickered like a firefly for a moment, then quickly disappeared. At the same time the light dissipated, a faint but sincere and grateful power flowed into Su Feng's body.

This was the power of gratitude that originated from the first and last time this light appeared. Although it was so weak that it could be ignored by Su Feng, the other party still gave everything it could to thank Su Feng for freeing it from the endless cycle of suffering.

Su Feng did not refuse the slight power merging into his body, but his brows furrowed involuntarily. At the same time, on the other side, Jie De clutched his chest, feeling the trembling and confusion emanating from his heart.

"what happened?"

Ever since Su Feng revealed that his daughter possessed the bloodline of the Spirit Suppressor, he had been concerned about her. Jeberle was the first to notice that something was wrong with Geed.

"I'm fine, it's just that just now... I felt a little sad for no reason?"

Geed answered Jeberlele's question blankly. Just as that dim light dissipated, a feeling of sadness inexplicably arose deep within her.

"That's because the part of your body that belongs to the spirit is grieving—the little bit of light that just dissipated was part of your kind."

Su Feng calmly answered Jie De's question. He was now beginning to marvel at how the Red King was indeed a descendant of the High Heavens, and how utterly inhuman he was.

After all, it would be too inhumane to directly use an incomplete spirit as an energy source to fill a machine.

Emotions and memories have power in Teyvat, and the Spirit Town can also draw enough Light Force from them.

So, what if we stuff a broken and incomplete spirit into a machine and make it suffer endless pain...?

Thus, the near-eternal machine was born.

Such a machine is perfect—it can use the power of light, has extremely high intelligence, requires little logistics, and can be used for a considerable period of time…

However, despite all the advantages, there is only one drawback—the damaged spirit stuffed into the machine can be seen as trapped in eternal torment.

All the beauty of the town spirits will have nothing to do with these broken town spirits who have been made into machines to be driven by everyone. All they can have are extremely broken bodies and endless pain and labor.

To be more precise, these naturally flawed spirits, which were likely deliberately created, are essentially natural slaves to all intelligent life in the desert. This is the greatest insult to the noble and proud spirits and even the higher beings!

If this were set in a different context, it would probably be considered a complete villainous boss, and even by the most powerful beings, it would be considered a gross overreach.

Even Su Feng found it hard to accept this behavior.

"Do these elemental machines... all contain fragments of spirit suppression?"

The group, who hadn't expected to overhear such a huge secret, couldn't help but widen their eyes—energy machines weren't uncommon in the desert, but what if they knew that these machines all contained the legendary spirit-suppressing power…

"Yes, these elemental machines are all driven by broken spirits, but these spirits are not complete spirits."

"But even so, this behavior is just too... terrifying."

"To put it more directly for you, this behavior is like using the flesh and blood of ordinary people to drive machines to perform endless labor, which is full of unspeakable pain and cruelty."

Su Feng's words sent chills down the spines of everyone present. They instinctively looked at the broken Yuan Energy Machine on the ground, then looked up at the magnificent Crimson King's Mausoleum, conjuring up images of that scene.

Great Red King, what exactly did you do?

Even the most cold-hearted and experienced Jeberlele couldn't help but have such a blasphemous thought at this moment.

"Forget about that for now. Let's get into the Crimson King's Tomb first. Instead of condemning a dead man, it's better to get on with what we need to do!"

Su Feng looked up again at the massive Crimson King's Mausoleum. The secrets hidden within the energy machinery shocked him, but right now, it was more important to first resolve the purpose of his trip to the desert.

As for what happens later... if he has time, Su Feng wouldn't mind cleaning up the many elemental machines in the desert.

After all, the ruthless things the Crimson King did were beyond Su Feng's tolerance. As a pure energy life form, he now had a kind of empathetic illusion.

……

The Crimson King's Tomb was enveloped in a thick barrier of light energy, but it was not difficult for Su Feng to open a temporary opening. In fact, if Su Feng needed to, he could study the barrier of light energy surrounding the Crimson King's Tomb a little and then adjust the frequency of his own light energy to smoothly ignore the barrier.

In fact, this kind of trick was also used on those elemental machines, but Su Feng didn't intend to waste time on such things. So after thinking it over for a while, he decisively chose to use his massive light boundary power to temporarily 'squeeze' the barrier in front of him.

However, when Su Feng broke through the barrier of light and entered the Crimson King's Tomb, he suddenly froze on the spot, and his face darkened at a visible speed.

Chapter Twenty Su Feng: I'll remember this grudge.

"what happened?"

Su Feng's drastic change in expression was naturally noticed by the others.

After seeing that Su Feng hadn't changed for a long time, El-Hysen couldn't help but ask.

"I've been scammed!"

However, when faced with Elhesen's question, Su Feng remained expressionless, and only managed to squeeze out a sentence at the very end.

Because he was indeed scammed.

Once inside the barrier of light, Su Feng finally understood why the Crimson King had gone to such great lengths to construct such a magnificent spectacle—he didn't believe the Crimson King could have preserved his remains after his fall.

In reality, very few demon gods leave behind their remains, especially a being like the Crimson King who wields the power of the Light Realm, who doesn't seem like he could leave anything behind.

Now Su Feng finally understands what the Crimson King's Tomb is used for—the entire Crimson King's Tomb is essentially a huge device used to contain, transform, and release massive amounts of light force!

While outside, he didn't notice this because of the barrier of light energy, and he didn't pay much attention. But after entering, he easily noticed the massive convergence of soul and consciousness curled up on the top floor of the Crimson King's Tomb, as well as the light energy that was being continuously transformed.

Of course, that's not the main point. What really made Su Feng feel like he'd been tricked was the abyss beneath his feet that was currently fighting against the massive light force that had been transformed!

This place is essentially a massive battlefield between the forces of light and the forces of the abyss, but it seems that the confrontation between the two sides is not too intense, so it is able to maintain its current state.

However, it seems that the entire Crimson King's Mausoleum was built on a terrifying abyss. The Crimson King used a portion of his remaining pure light boundary power as the core, and used the Crimson King's Mausoleum and Aru to extract a small portion of the consciousness of all life in the desert as raw materials to continuously generate a huge amount of light boundary power to fight against the abyss beneath his feet.

That so-called Aru is actually the power supply system for this enormous, spectacular sealing device!

To integrate countless thoughts into one, and to unify countless calculations into one.

Therefore, man will become king of kings and god of gods.

Those who ascend to Aru will shed their mortal bodies and gain the wisdom and authority of Akhmar.

This is a divine oracle left by the Red King, and a legend that has been circulating in the desert for countless years. Countless ambitious people have been captivated by this legend, and countless others have been buried in the boundless yellow sand because of it.

At first, Su Feng didn't pay much attention to the Aru that the Crimson King had created, which seemed to be able to unify the minds and spirits of mortals—he thought it was just a means for that madman, the Crimson King, to prevent his followers from ascending to the heavens as mere ornaments.

In fact, many countries have this kind of method to some extent. After all, it is somewhat inhumane to let one's favorite mortals go to heaven as ornaments. Naturally, the gods of the mortal world will help their own people in any way they can.

But Su Feng never expected that the Crimson King had a much more elaborate scheme than he had imagined!

The so-called all-encompassing Aru is essentially a grand 'dream' that uses a portion of the Red King's will and power as a foundation to connect all mortals in the entire desert.

Of course, if there is a suitable person, the Red King would not mind bringing up that person's soul and will to become part of the foundation of the entire great dream—or, to put it more simply, to become part of Him and share the burden.

Well, in a sense, this can be considered as fulfilling the promise in the oracle—after all, in that case, the soul of this mortal did indeed become the Red King, and indeed inherited His wisdom and authority.

The only pity is that this mortal's soul and consciousness will be completely destroyed when facing Aru, and then become a part of him, and be obediently hung on the top of the Red King's Tomb for endless overtime.

It's practically confirmed that the Red King came down from the sky. Only someone from Sky Island could be so skilled at this kind of operation.

Honestly, if this fact were to be publicized, the Red King would probably be cursed to death.

Unfortunately, most of the people and gods who knew about this are probably no longer around. If Su Feng hadn't been so powerful and possessed the power of the Light Realm, he might not have been able to detect so many things.

It is precisely because of this situation that Su Feng feels he has been tricked.

Because the current Aru exists as the energy source for the entire Red King's Tomb.

The enormous Aru is relentlessly drawing all available spirit and will from the entire sea of ​​sand and transforming it into the power of light that supplies the Crimson King's Tomb.

This absorption is now limited to not affecting the lives and livelihoods of ordinary mortals, but Su Feng doesn't think that the Crimson King, who can make all sorts of arrangements, would not prepare a reckless 'berserk mode' for Aru.

After all, the Abyss lies beneath the Crimson King's Tomb. If the Abyss were to break through the Crimson King's Tomb's suppression, then the entire Teyvat would likely face yet another terrifying disaster.

So the 'necessary sacrifices' were probably already planned when this thing was built, right?

So what is Su Feng's purpose in coming to the desert this time?

Of course, the goal is to take away such a huge cluster of consciousness as Aru and transform it into a vast amount of knowledge and energy to help the Little Lucky Grass King save the World Tree!

But if Su Feng really just took Aru and left, could the Crimson King's Tomb, which had lost sufficient supply of light boundary power, still seal this huge abyss breach?

Anyway, Su Feng felt it was unlikely to work out.

So now Su Feng only has one choice left—to deal with the abyss rift here and then take away Aru, who has gathered the consciousness of the Crimson King and countless mortals.

In other words, this trip is to help Xumi solve two problems related to the abyss?