In Teyvat, it all begins with rescuing the grass god.

If it involves the abyss, then he might be able to help.

There's nothing that can be done about the curse on Sky Island.

After all, the curse was an intractable ailment that Daines Reb himself declared incurable. It was something that even the gods couldn't solve, so there was even less chance that Rhodes could help him.

While Rhodes was still figuring out what Hafdan was up to.

The owner of another set of footsteps appeared.

She made no attempt to conceal herself; otherwise, given her skills, while she might not have been able to fool Rhodes, she certainly wouldn't have caused such a commotion.

Night orchid.

This was the first time Rhodes had met this intelligence agent who could be considered Liyue's ace.

She made no attempt to disguise herself and appeared before Rhodes in her true form.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Yelan, and I am an employee of the Liyue General Affairs Department."

Yelan seemed to have confirmed Rhodes' identity. After introducing herself, she glanced at the severely damaged black mist area and asked, "Did you do all this?"

"Ah."

Rhodes nodded in agreement.

"Making such a big commotion at the bottom of the deep abyss is very dangerous."

Don't do that again.

After a brief reminder, Ye Lan continued, "I've taken care of what you asked me to do. The executive officer has reached a fork in the road. I estimate that this will delay him for a day. Is that enough?"

"A little less."

"It would be best to delay it for another day or two."

Rhodes pondered, "Can you break the seals that suppress the Sky Nail within a day? If so, then there's no need to delay him any longer."

"Sorry, no."

Ye Lan shook her head decisively and said, "That's why I came to find you."

"Oh?"

"The traps over there should be easy to break, right? I've read the logbook of that Fool's Company; they all managed to find ways to disable the traps. You should have even less trouble, right?"

Speaking of this matter...

Rhodes thought it was a miracle.

It's important to understand that even if the Ninth Company of the Fatui were the most elite, they were still just mortals, and the eyes they used were the evil eyes developed by the Fatui that had strong negative effects on the body, not the true eyes of God.

With such physical abilities, they actually made it all the way to the location of the Frost Spike in the perilous underground mining area, and even found a way to solve the abyss pollution problem.

If Zhi Dong and Li Yue hadn't fallen out later, and Li Yue hadn't unilaterally cut off their supplies, Zhi Dong wouldn't have abandoned them and left them to die there.

Provided that supplies are adequate.

Rhodes had no doubt that his mortal army alone could solve the problem of abyssal pollution beneath the Layered Rock Abyss.

As for Yelan's abilities...

Rhodes had even less doubt.

This is a highly skilled fighter who can hold his own against the Ninth Executive Officer.

Even if all the men in the Ninth Company were combined, they wouldn't be a match for her alone.

So why does Ye Lan look like she can't solve something that even the Ninth Company can handle on her own?

However, to Rod's astonishment...

Ye Lan replied, "When did they get there? I've been following them the whole time. They only recently escaped this heavily polluted area, and they're still quite a distance from the location of the sky nail you marked for me."

"ha--?"

Rhodes was speechless.

Bad dish.

This was truly unexpected.

In his impression.

That Ninth Company fought their way to the location of the Sky Spike and finally found a solution, but they had to give up because of the inadequacy of their equipment.

"etc."

A vein throbbed on Rod's forehead.

wrong.

The timing was wrong.

The Ninth Company did indeed find the Frost Spikes, and they must have found a way to deal with them before their supplies were cut off. However, after being thwarted by the Frost Spikes, they should have realized that their supplies had been cut off. Otherwise, with only their machines damaged, they could have applied to Zhidong for new equipment instead of retreating after just one attempt.

This is truly a huge blunder.

Rhodes, feeling a headache coming on, didn't know how to explain the matter of the diary.

Fortunately, Ye Lan did not pursue the matter further.

However, in exchange for not pursuing the matter of Rhodes talking nonsense, she needs Rhodes' help.

"The pollution there is extremely serious, much worse than here, and it would be very difficult for me to get close by myself."

Ye Lan tapped her feet and continued, "The Fools only have one cleaning machine. It's already difficult to clean up the pollution here with just that one machine. The pollution at the crystal is at least ten times that here. It's impossible for their machine to clean it up."

She said it was hard to approach, not hard to clean.

It's just two words different.

The implications of these two statements are completely different.

However, Rod keenly grasped another point in her words.

"What else do you know?"

The fact that Yelan offered to help clearly showed that she knew he wasn't afraid of the abyss's corruption, a fact that made Rhodes frown slightly.

He was convinced.

During the time he was absorbing the power of the abyss, Ye Lan did not spy on him nearby.

Only a handful of people, including the lady and the gentleman, knew about this.

How did Ye Lan find out about this?

"Not many."

In response to Rhodes's question, Yelan smiled and said, "The information about you is kept under very high security by Sumeru. I can only find out this much no matter how hard I try."

"Tsk, I hope you're not lying to me."

Rod said again, "Okay, I can help you, but it will take a day."

"Okay, I see."

"Then I'll wait for you by the crystal."

Ye Lan didn't ask why she had to wait for this day. She knew very well what "waiting for a day" meant. After agreeing on a time and place to meet with Rhodes, she moved like the wind, turning into a blue phantom and disappearing from Rhodes' sight in the blink of an eye.

"Another tough job has been taken on."

He uttered a small complaint, but Rhodes didn't show any resentment on his face. He shook his head and continued to focus his energy on devouring the power of the abyss.

There was no interference from other people, and no risk of exceeding the body's limits.

Rhodes's process of devouring was incredibly smooth.

Before the black mist area could recover, he preemptively devoured all the abyssal power there and successfully converted it into his own elemental power.

Finish these.

He took out the Heart of God and tried using it.

This time.

The heart of God is no longer silent.

Under Rhodes's prompting, Zhongli's Heart of God emitted a faint glow, very slight, but definitely brighter than when it was first taken out.

"It'll be here soon, it'll be here soon."

Seeing that his efforts over the past few days had not been in vain, Rod chuckled.

After putting away the Heart of God, his gaze shifted to the ruins not far away.

Hafdan was still there watching him.

After Yelan left, the leader of the Black Serpent Knights reappeared.

And it was exactly the same as when the two first met.

He didn't make any movement; he just stood there like a statue, staring at Rhodes without any hostility.

"Did you need something from me?"

Rhodes relayed his message.

This wasn't the first time he'd asked Hafdan this question, but he'd never received a response before.

And this time.

He finally received a series of strange, unintelligible sounds.

How to describe it?

Hafdan's response was like someone slicing a metal plate with a knife—sharp, piercing, and a long, drawn-out sound.

Let's not even talk about whether we can understand it.

The sound alone is enough to make your head buzz.

"."

Rhodes, whose ears were being tortured and who still couldn't understand anything, looked at Hafdan again.

It seems she knows her voice isn't pleasant to listen to.