Genshin Impact: The Beginning of the Wind

"It's alright. This power is both a blessing and a constraint for you."

“My power will be with you. We need your help now, thanks to the spirit of Nabu Marikata.”

"But because of your past sin of leading the Abyss into Teyvat, I have bound you with these chains. If you ever betray the world and turn to the Abyss again, I will not hesitate to turn you into a sliver of light on the horizon!"

"If you can complete my task, then this power will be transformed into my blessing, allowing you to gain greater strength and a more complete body."

Su Feng made no attempt to conceal his intentions when threatening Lilupal. This spirit, who dared to invade Teyvat by inviting the Abyss in order to avenge her husband, was simply too insane. Even Su Feng wouldn't feel at ease without some precautions.

"As you command, Your Excellency Winged One."

Faced with Su Feng's threats and warnings, Lilupal did not hesitate to submit to him.

Chapter Three: The Bound Ones

The celestial phenomenon of burning truth over the desolate desert is very important, after all, it was once the battlefield of the gods, so any problems there would be of great importance.

However, the Thousand Ravines Sandy Land is also a troublesome place.

This place was once the site of the city of Juer, and also the location where the Flower Goddess and the Red King sought forbidden knowledge.

Moreover, Lilupar went to great lengths to take revenge on her husband.

It's important to understand that at that time, under Lilupal's conspiracy and manipulation, the entire city of Gul fell into the abyss dimension, and the huge city and its large population became nourishment for the abyss.

This is an enormous loss for Teyvat, and more importantly, it is tantamount to opening a passage between the Abyss and Teyvat!

It was precisely because Teyvat had just fought a major battle with the Abyss at that time, with both sides suffering heavy losses, and Amon, as a son of the High Heavens, possessed numerous abilities, that another battle to defend Teyvat might be necessary.

If it weren't for this, Lilupal would never have suffered the excruciating punishment of having her soul torn apart!

For the Water Lily Maiden, renowned for her beauty and nobility, such behavior was tantamount to a demotion—from a noble town spirit to one of the broken town spirits created by Lilupal.

She was demoted from master to slave!

More importantly, this slave of Zhuzhenling only appeared under her inducement.

This is the compensation she deserves.

If it weren't for the Red King's concern that even after her soul was split, this girl would still have the ability to bewitch others and use her soul for other purposes, she might have been turned into a primal energy machine to be used by others.

This is also why Nasida brought Su Feng along to search for this infamous Great Town Spirit—the city of Juer also needed to be inspected. Although the Red King's methods were indeed very powerful, they were not foolproof.

Who knows if the ruins of the former city of Gül will become the next breakthrough point for the abyss?

Moreover, Nasida was still somewhat uneasy because the Red King and the Flower Goddess had played such a terrifying game back then.

Anyway, it will take some time for the power of mortals to enter the desolate desert, so wouldn't it be better to take advantage of this gap to inspect the situation here?

Of course, it is also necessary to detain this powerful spirit who has done such a terrible thing before, otherwise who knows if he will accidentally run out again and do something terrible again.

Especially now that the reasons might be readily available—many of the tribal matriarchs in the Thousand Ravines Sandy Land claim to be 'daughters of the Flower Goddess,' what would happen if the real Zhenling heard this?

In any case, Su Feng and Naxida didn't think that these yandere spirits would just laugh off something that could be considered a disgrace to the Flower Goddess's reputation.

So after capturing a fragment of Lilupal's soul, Naxida and Su Feng began to quickly collect the rest of the Great Town Spirit's soul, striving to collect all of the Great Town Spirit's 'remains' so that they wouldn't fall into the outside world and wreak havoc.

Fortunately, the location where the remaining remnants of this Great Spirit were sealed and hidden was no secret to Nasita, who could freely access information about the World Tree.

As for the mechanisms and seals used for concealment, those are even less of a problem.

Putting aside everything else, even a slightly rougher dismantling would be a piece of cake for Su Feng. Moreover, almost all the mechanisms can be found in the World Tree with the most detailed information, and Su Feng is also a master of using the power of the light realm.

This method of skipping key items and using bugs to open doors by simply looking at the guide is quite satisfying—since Su Feng had no intention of solving the puzzles one by one, this kind of direct approach was the most comfortable for him.

Soon the group arrived at a crucial place—Akhmar's Crystal Cup, or rather, the interior of Mount Dama, which is surrounded by perpetual sandstorms.

Upon seeing this legendary crystal goblet, both Su Feng and Naxida couldn't help but marvel at how audacious the Crimson King truly was. If he weren't a descendant of the High Heaven, he would have been struck by the Heavenly Nails countless times long ago!

Because this legendary crystal cup is not a cup at all, but is actually made from a single Heavenly Nail—that guy Red King actually dismantled the Heavenly Nail that Takagi would recycle after he finished using it and modified it into something he wanted.

All I can say is that in terms of courting death, the Crimson King is indeed the most formidable one Su Feng has ever seen. If the crimes he committed had been committed by some ordinary demon god, they probably would have been struck by the Heavenly Nails the moment they even had the idea.

As a result, the Red King lived a lively and energetic life for so long, but in the end, he only died because he courted death and ended up in the abyss.

Sure enough, he has a powerful background, or perhaps the Red King himself has some kind of mission?

Who knows?

However, Su Feng wasn't particularly interested in the Red King's background. After collecting the few fragments of Lilupal's soul around the crystal goblet, Su Feng brought Nasita with him to the modified 'crystal goblet'.

Then, a huge elemental energy construct appeared before everyone.

"Ah!! I feel it... Lilupal, you culprit who destroyed the city of Gül... How dare you appear before me again? You who have tarnished the honor of your mistress... you fallen one..."

"Now...do you want to...defile this peaceful place?"

The immense power of light flowed within this enormous primordial energy structure. The eldest sister among the spirits of the town had abandoned her beautiful body and all joy, locking herself within this huge and ugly contraption.

Pain and sorrow became her inexhaustible source of strength, but they also tormented her, leaving her battered and bruised.

All of this was to protect the Eternal Oasis, to protect the lie that the Crimson King had promised to resurrect the Flower Goddess...

"Leave this place... you lowly fallen one... before the shackles tighten again... before I can no longer control myself... leave this place!"

Even though she had guessed over the long years that the Red King's promise was a lie, Feligis, whose desire to resurrect her mistress had never waned, preferred to deceive herself into believing the lie.

However, no matter how much she hated Lilupal for committing heinous crimes, Feligis, as the elder sister of the spirits of the towns, still tried her best to control her programmed body and forgive this fallen one who dared to disturb the mistress's slumber.

“Feligis... my elder sister... why did you choose such suffering?”

Upon seeing her elder sister in such agony, Lilupal couldn't help but let out a painful wail—even though she still didn't believe her revenge against Gül City was wrong, she still felt so helpless and sad when facing her elder sister who had once cared for and indulged her.

Especially after seeing her elder sister abandon her beautiful and elegant body and choose to be shackled in such painful machinery, she was in even greater pain. So she had no choice but to float in front of Su Feng and make her prayer.

"O noble winged being, I, in my humble state, beg you to grant me your grace and help my elder sister escape this near-eternal torment..."

Chapter 4 has even more plot holes.

Su Feng wasn't actually that interested in the elemental energy machines that Lilupal had created and that the Red King had popularized—these machines, which required squeezing the souls of the spirits to produce pain and wailing in order to operate, didn't have much practical use.

Especially on the battlefield of the gods, even if these elemental machines can use the power of the light realm to a certain extent, it's still nothing special. In any case, even the so-called semi-eternal ruling matrix that has been fused with the Red King's persistent will is nothing more than a big toy in Su Feng's eyes.

The elemental machinery in front of them, which uses the Great Spirit Feligis as its energy source, is actually just the same.

So Su Feng simply raised his finger slightly and summoned a gust of wind, easily locking the huge and powerful elemental machine firmly in place. Then, the sharp wind, combined with the power of the light realm, easily dismantled the entire machine.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. By the time Lilupal came to her senses, the elemental machinery that had been restraining Feligis had been completely reduced to a pile of parts, and then a faint light gradually emerged from these parts.

That was Feligis, who was extremely weak.

Over the long course of time, Feligis's soul has become weak and broken under endless pressure. Even if Su Feng hadn't come today, this once powerful and beautiful Great Town Spirit probably wouldn't have been able to hold on for much longer—returning to the Source Sea silently is probably Feligis's only fate.

“My elder sister, my sister Felicis, why do you torture yourself like this?”

Upon seeing the light that drifted like smoke above the wreckage of the energy machinery, Lilupal let out a soft and painful wail. She never imagined that her once beautiful and powerful elder sister would become so ugly that a wisp of wind could dissipate it.

"Ah... eternal pain is fading away from me... I will eventually return to the embrace of the moonlight."

“Lilupar, my sister… do you know… that the mistress needs a protector… I… have no choice but to do so.”

Perhaps it was because the long torment had finally dissipated, but at this moment, Felicis's voice finally shed its previous stiff and mechanical quality. However, this soft and almost faint voice now allowed people to instinctively feel the joy of finally being free.

Even the strongest soul will eventually break under thousands of years of torment. Even gods may perish under such a heavy burden, let alone a mere spirit.

She felt obligated to fulfill her mistress's dream, and now it seems that this obligation has finally been completed.

Then, a ray of moonlight, seemingly from nowhere, fell upon this place, and under its glow, the thin light gradually dissipated.

......

"I am sorry, Your Majesty of Thorough Knowledge, please forgive my useless sorrow, and that of the Winged Ones."

It took Lilupal a long time to come to her senses and apologize to Nasita, who was waiting beside her to come to her senses. However, Nasita just waved her off.

"You don't need to feel sorry. I understand how you feel right now. If needed, you can continue to calm down for a while. We also need to check on some other things."

Narcida understood Lilupal's emotions. After all, the sudden death of a blood relative who had accompanied her for countless years was something that would be difficult for anyone to accept. Moreover, Su Feng, who had been staring at something at the edge of the crystal glass since he dealt with Feligis's elemental construct, clearly had his own matters to attend to.

He probably didn't care about what was happening here at all.

"Thank you for your understanding. I've managed to calm myself down now—perhaps returning to the mistress's embrace is the best option for Sister Felicis, after all, she has endured far too much pain."

Lilupal controlled her emotions well. She knew very well that this was not the time for her to be willful, or rather, she had no right to be willful in front of Nasida and Su Feng. The most important thing was to quickly calm down and complete their tasks.

She hasn't reached the point of her final performance yet, and besides, she hasn't even planned her farewell show!

Nasita, of course, had no idea what Lilupar was thinking—she did not try to pry into the thoughts of the town spirit in front of her, but after confirming that Lilupar was not, at least on the surface, indulging in grief, she brought Lilupar to Su Feng's side.

"Did you find anything here?"

Nasida looked at Su Feng with some curiosity, who was staring intently at the seemingly endless storm on the outside of the crystal glass. She felt that Su Feng must have discovered something that she hadn't.

"There are some rifts between worlds below, but they are well sealed off now and should not become passages for the abyss to invade for the time being."

Su Feng briefly explained the current situation to the two people beside him.

Although the Red King arrogantly modified the Sky Nail into a functional device to maintain the Eternal Oasis, he was also very clear that the world rift below must not have any problems, otherwise the Eternal Oasis would be the first place to suffer.

The various ruins scattered throughout the Thousand Valleys Sands are less about protecting the Eternal Oasis and more about gathering power in various ways to supply the modified Crystal Cup to maintain the Eternal Oasis and the seal on the world rift below.

A project similar to the Red King's Mausoleum, or rather a simplified version of the Red King's Mausoleum, since the problems here are far better than the solidified passage beneath the Red King's Mausoleum.

Are you sure there won't be any problems?

Upon hearing that there was a crevice connecting Dama Mountain to the abyss, Nasita became much more serious, since anything involving the abyss was no laughing matter.

"There's no problem. The seal is holding up well right now. I think it's best not to move it around too much, since there's already a problem with one of our surroundings. It would be too dangerous if we caused another problem here by moving around."

Su Feng gave his definitive judgment.

Although Teyvat is now riddled with problems like a sieve, Su Feng still felt that the problems in Sumeru were exceptionally serious—none of the previous countries had such a pervasive network of holes connecting to the abyss as Sumeru.

As expected, there are many holes in Sumeru!

Fortunately, Su Feng doesn't need to deal with this for the time being.

"Then let's go to the Eternal Oasis and take a look. I'm afraid that the Crimson King will pull some tricks on me there."

Although he breathed a sigh of relief for the time being, Su Feng was also impressed by the Crimson King's talent for causing trouble. So he couldn't wait to suggest that they quickly see what kind of huge problem the Crimson King had stirred up in the Eternal Oasis this time.

Upon hearing this, the first person to become anxious was naturally Lilupal.

After all, the Eternal Oasis is part of the Crimson King's promise to the Spirit Towns to revive their mistress!