The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

The flames within her body ceased to flow, and the rising smoke around her gradually dissipated. The enormous skirt, which had swelled due to the heat, shrank back to its normal shape.

The woman's condition was far from good at the moment; her body was covered in burn marks.

Several large, orange-black ravines were burned into the woman's body. If you looked closely, you could also see the dense stripes within the ravines.

The woman felt as if she were being tightly gripped by a scorching giant hand. And indeed, that was the case.

At the last moment, what the woman saw was not the embers, nor the charging Lance Sanx, but a giant hand.

The hand was strange; it had only three fingers, and its yellowish-brown surface looked like it had been carved from weathered rock. The fingerprints on it were clearly reflected in the woman's eyes.

Within the cracks on the surface, surging orange-yellow flames emitted heat and a faint glow. One couldn't help but suspect that the residue that fell from the palm was caused by the burning of the flames within.

The hand with only three fingers gripped the woman tightly. The immense heat radiated through her clothes, and the searing pain of her body being burned by flames, along with an unbearable despair, surged through her, almost causing her to faint.

Was it because the woman herself had a strong will? Or was she under even greater pressure from the embers? In any case, she ultimately pulled through.

The deep grooves on her body were formed by the seemingly real three fingers burned into them, and the finer lines within the grooves were the fingerprints of those three fingers.

"Hey! Your Majesty, is she alright?" Lance Sanks squatted down beside the woman and poked the dazed woman with a twig.

The woman kept groaning in pain, and with her gruesome burns, she looked like she was about to die.

Upon hearing this, Yu Jin, who was fiddling with a woman's dress, looked up and replied nonchalantly, "It's nothing. I'm not that idiot Three Fingers. Even if I had clothes, I could still carve madness onto someone else."

The Three Fingers are the messengers of the Mad Fire, conveying its will and bringing an end to the world, burning everything to ashes.

All things begin with the great One, from which distinctions arise. Differences are born, life appears, and at the same time, life develops mind.

This is the mistake made by the supreme will; all evil and suffering arise from this "mistake".

So, Madfire wanted to rectify this mistake and return all things to their very origin. He melted everything with chaotic yellow flames, allowing all things to return to that vast, all-encompassing "One".

As for someone like Maniac, Ember can only describe him as: a pure terrorist who must be properly disciplined!

Anyway, Ember listened to Three Fingers', or rather, Madfire's, "grand" idea while dozing off. If Melina hadn't been nagging him, Ember probably would have actually fallen asleep.

As for Ember, he wholeheartedly agreed with the supreme will.

Come on, creating life is such a grand and prestigious thing. If the supreme will didn't do it, he probably would have!

As for the suffering, Ember felt it was simply the laziness of His supreme will. With His abilities, what was there that He didn't know?

For the Supreme Will, observing everything about every living being is not difficult. Of course, whether doing so would bring greater suffering, Ember is uncertain.

Moreover, it's unclear whether it's Three-Finger Vegetable or Mad Fire Vegetable, but during the process of receiving Mad Fire, one cannot wear clothes!

Anyway, after confirming it several times, Ember threw Melina out and started taking off her clothes. As he expected, Three Fingers exploded on the spot after seeing his body, leaving him depressed for quite a while.

Now that Ember has accepted the Mad Flame, he has definitely solved this weakness. And the lady is his first test subject.

"What...what are you doing?" a weak female voice came. The woman saw Yu Jin fiddling with her skirt and shrank back in fear.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm just curious how your skirt got so big!" Yu Jin put down the skirt and said, drawing a circle with both hands.

The second phase of the lady is really amazing. Not only does her skirt swell to an enormous size, but the mask on her head also gets bigger, even bigger than her head.

"..." Yu Jin's words caused the woman to fall silent. She stood up shakily, occasionally letting out heavy breathing.

With each step she took, the burns on her body sent shivers of pain through her. Pain and despair seemed to linger in the woman's ears, like clubs churning her mind.

The mental and physical pain was clearly etched on her body. The woman gritted her teeth and tried her best not to scream.

Fortunately, the pain didn't last long. The woman could feel it materialize. It roamed over her body, eventually shrinking into her eyeballs.

"Huh... what did you do to me?" The woman rubbed her eyes. Her once soft eyeballs were now burning hot, as if they might spew something terrifying out at any moment.

"Just helping you suppress the flames, how's it going?" Ember said casually, looking at the woman's orange-yellow eyes.

The effect was more than just good; the woman could feel the fire within her body shrinking into a ball of fire, trembling as it moved away from what she saw.

"Hehe, good luck. Whether what you see in your eyes will become the flames that destroy you or transform into your power depends entirely on your future performance," Ember said with a smile, glancing at the woman who was deep in thought.

"Bye-bye! If you feel increasingly miserable in the future, don't bother looking for me. Because I'll most likely tell you: 'Goodbye!'" Ember waved to the woman, leaving only his back view before disappearing.

Ember moved quickly, disappearing in the blink of an eye. But Lance Sanx didn't leave; she stared curiously into the lady's eyes.

"Why didn't you go with him?" The woman sat down against a tree trunk after watching Yu Jin disappear.

“Actually, Wang is a very good person,” Lance Sanx said, looking at the woman who had twice narrowly escaped death.

The woman simply closed her eyes to rest, offering no response to Lance Sanx's words. She was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally, and had only managed to stay awake during her conversation with Ember.

"What you see is called Mad Fire. It's hard to say whether it came from despair or represents despair. But the fact that the King allowed Mad Fire to taint you means that your experience is definitely related to despair." Lance Sanx ignored the lady's attitude and continued to chatter on.

"The king has tested many things on you, which he wouldn't normally do. It's most likely because you did something that most people would consider deserving of death, so the king doesn't care about your life."

As soon as Lance Sanx finished speaking, he saw the woman open her eyes. She looked indignant and wanted to argue, but in the end, she said nothing.

"Haha, it seems I was right! But Wang is always very generous. Don't take this chance to atone for your sins. The despair in your eyes is all caused by you."

"As for how to persuade them not to devour you, that depends on your own abilities!"

"Why are you helping me like this?" the woman asked weakly, looking at Lance Sanx who was pouring beans out of the container. She asked with a mixture of gratitude and confusion.

Looking at the woman's eyes, Lance Sanx took a step back and said, "Don't misunderstand, let's keep things separate. I impulsively beat you up, now we're even!"

“If I ever see you doing something wrong again, or if anyone asks me for help, don’t doubt it, I’ll beat you to death.” Lance Sanx said, waving his fist.

The woman nodded when she saw Lance Sanx's appearance. But her expression quickly froze as she saw Ember rushing towards her in the distance.

"Lance Sanders! I've noticed you're really bad at reading the room!" Ember shouted as he ran.

"What's the atmosphere like?" Lance Sanx asked, looking puzzled.

"The boss is gone, shouldn't you, the little brother, follow closely behind?" Ember came to Lance Sanx's side and tapped her head as he spoke.

“Oh, I understand.” Lance Sanx nodded, indicating that he understood.

Then the lady saw Ember's back, along with Lance Sanx following closely behind him, disappear from sight.

Chapter 185 Thousand Wind Arena

2023-09-21

Outside Mondstadt, a group of people were walking across a vast plain.

"So, what brings you here so early?" The Mondstadt sky was unexpectedly bright after the dragon scourge had subsided. Paimon flew to Ember's side and asked curiously.

The "Dvalin Rescue Team" reunited after only a few days apart.

But something seems a little strange. Paimon tried to fly higher, and then suddenly realized that the busker seemed to have disappeared, replaced by Lance Sanx.

"Hey! Ember, did you forget about the street singer? Where is he?" Paimon noticed something was wrong and immediately asked.

"I thought you hadn't noticed yet?" Ember couldn't help but complain when he saw that Paimon had taken so long to notice the anomaly.

However, he still explained, "I called you over so you could see how Tvalin has recovered."

"As for Wendy, he went to call Dvalin. He probably wants to have a chat with him, since they haven't seen each other in so long."

"Then who is she?" Paimon asked, looking at Lance Sanx not far away.

"Hehe, my name is Lance Sanx, and I'm a dragon!" Lance Sanx had been staring at Paimon with gleaming eyes. She grabbed Paimon and started to roughly hug him.

"Wow! What an amazing creature! Are you an elf?" Lance Sanx asked curiously, ruffling Paimon's hair.

"No! Paimon is Paimon!" Paimon broke free from Lance Sanx's embrace and immediately flew to Luminous's side.

She stomped her foot angrily. Why did everyone who got involved with Yu Jin like to touch her so much? No one else would do that.

"Alright, Paimon, doesn't this make you look cute?" Ying said with a smile, looking at the angry Paimon.

"Paimon seems unusually sensitive to being touched," Ying suddenly thought.

However, she quickly shook her head, dismissing her wild thoughts. It's normal for Paimon to be a little sensitive, given his peculiar nature.

Paimon's aura came quickly and dissipated just as fast. Soon she flew onto Lance Sanx's body, looking at her with curiosity and saying, "You're a dragon? Why can a dragon turn into a human?"

“Hehe, where we come from, dragons interact with people.” Lance Sanks spun around and said with a laugh.

"But how do dragons and humans interact?" Paimon scratched her head, asking in confusion. She was terrified of Dvalin, let alone want to be around him.

"How do we interact..." Lance Sanx paused, recalling the scenes of his friendly "communication" with the believers.

She felt that if she said it directly, she might scare Paimon. So Lance Sanks simply said, "It's just answering their questions and such, pretty boring. By the way, are there many dragons here?"

“Very rare. Before we met Dvalin, we thought dragons were legendary creatures!” Paimon said, glancing at Luminous.

Regardless of what others thought, she genuinely believed that dragons were legendary creatures. She was quite startled when she saw Dvalin.

"Um... do you know where this is?" Without realizing it, Qin suddenly found herself in a somewhat unfamiliar place.

In Qin's field of vision, a cylindrical arena appeared. The entire arena was brownish-gray, as if it were carved from several huge stone blocks, looking as one and incredibly heavy.

Interspersed among the stones is an even taller stone pillar. The pillar is carved with intricate, swirling patterns, which, along with the openwork sculptures in the stone walls, add a touch of human interest to the otherwise lifeless and somber arena.

Qin is familiar with all the terrain in Mondstadt, but in Qin's memory, there is no such architectural style in Mondstadt at all.

Whether in history or now, the architectural style of Mondstadt is completely different from that of the arena before us!

"Shouldn't this be the Thousand Winds Temple? How did it turn out like this?"

Although the terrain of the Temple of a Thousand Winds had been altered by Dvalin, Jean was still able to identify it as the Temple of a Thousand Winds based on the scenery she had just seen and the undamaged terrain.

"You can recognize this?" Yu Jin was immediately shocked. In his view, the Thousand Winds Temple had been thoroughly ravaged by Dvalin's High Heaven Closing Song, and its overall appearance was completely different from before.

And with the arena she just built, it's amazing that Qin can still recognize it!

“Naturally, as the acting Grand Master of the Knights, I should know every inch of Mondstadt like the back of my hand!” Jean said this without any pride, as if she were just stating a matter of course.

In fact, Jean still held back. As far as Mondstadt was concerned, she could roughly determine her location no matter where she was, as long as Mondstadt was not destroyed.

Because she had already memorized the distribution of Mondstadt's unique creatures. As long as the climate remained the same, she could recognize them no matter how the terrain changed.

"Hmph, quite impressive aura. If all those guys in the Knights were like you, I wouldn't have to be so busy every day." Diluc nodded with rare satisfaction after hearing Jean's words.

Although he was quite satisfied with Jean as his junior, Diluc's mouth remained unchanged, and he still maintained his indifferent attitude.

Jean scratched her head and said nothing when she heard Diluc's praise. She knew in her heart that there were very few people who could do what she did.

However, due to Qin's inner humility, she was too embarrassed to express it.

"Wow! This feels so familiar, is this the arena?" Lance Sanx also saw the towering building in the distance.

Although Lance Sanx had never been to the arena, he recognized it at a glance. The architectural style of the border region was simply too striking.