The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

Seeing the embers suppress the calamity that had been repeated thousands of times, hope rekindled in Aruru's eyes.

Seeing this, Yu Jin waved his hand.

"If you want my help, you should at least explain the situation, right?"

"For example, why are you so special, what is the festival, and who are the 'Thunderbird Lord' and Capachelli you keep talking about?"

Facing the dark slit of the embers, Aryu couldn't help but shrink her head back.

“Festivals…Festivals always require offerings. And the main offering this time is me.”

Aru spoke very frankly about the fact that she was a sacrifice. There was no resentment or bitterness about it.

He then scratched his head, looking puzzled and confused, and said, "But I clearly remember being offered up at the altar, so why did I wake up? And after I woke up, no one paid any attention to me."

"There must be something wrong with the festival that angered Lord Thunderbird. As long as the festival can be completed, everything will be fine."

Seeing Aru nodding repeatedly, Yu Jin and the other two fell silent.

"You... this is a bit hard for me to judge." Yu Jin was also at a loss with Aru. He had never seen anyone so eager to be a sacrifice.

"What's so special about that? Every year, everyone has to offer a sacrifice to the master inside, after all, it was Lord Thunderbird who released the mist to protect Crane View from the invasion of external darkness."

Aru acted as if it were perfectly natural; offerings were made every year, it was just his turn this year. Besides, Lord Thunderbird favored him.

"Foolish," the stragglers scoffed.

"It's indeed difficult to judge." The young master shook his head, unsure of what to say.

"That's not entirely true. If you were put in those conditions, you wouldn't necessarily perform better than the people from Heguan."

Yu Jin turned to look at the stragglers and the young master. These two guys certainly thought too highly of themselves. If you threw them into the same conditions as the people of He Guan, they might be even worse off than the people of He Guan.

On a secluded island, the sudden emergence of an extremely powerful individual almost inevitably leads to the formation of a primitive form of worship.

Under primitive worship, the existence of blood sacrifices was unavoidable.

"What is the Thunderbird's attitude towards your blood sacrifice?" Ember looked at the surrounding mist. This mist wasn't released by the Thunderbird to protect the Crane Observation people.

If we're being honest, this fog probably originated from debris falling from the sky. The Thunderbird simply stumbled upon this place by chance.

"This... I don't know."

"do not know?"

Ember was shocked. The sacrifice had no feedback and they were still going on. This was really something.

"Lord Thunderbird simply looked at the offerings, did nothing, said nothing, and flew away."

"Anyway, if we listen to the high priest, the results of each sacrifice are always very good!"

Aru couldn't figure out how the Thunderbird viewed their sacrificial behavior; each time the Thunderbird finished watching, it would simply fly away.

“I see, he’s an arrogant guy.” Yu Jin turned his head and glanced at the skirmisher, who quickly waved his hand.

"I will not stand idly by and watch living people be sacrificed. If I want to kill, I will do it myself; I don't need anyone's help!"

"Ha, I hope that's true. You should be glad I'm not that kind of guy, or the grass on your graves would be three feet high by now."

Yu Jin crossed his arms and spoke to the stragglers and the young master. His days of arrogance and haughtiness were long gone.

Because when he's arrogant and overconfident, something unexpected will always come and hit him hard.

Things like cursed frogs in the sewers, three dogs in the elevator, and a giant iron ball created from the void.

After experiencing several deaths caused by his own complacency, the eyes on the top of Ember's head grew back.

Now he takes everything in stride.

"I know, I know." The young master nodded hurriedly, daring not to disobey.

"Hmm... Although I don't want to admit it, I've never seen someone as strong as you before." After hesitating for a while, the skirmisher finally admitted what Ember had said.

Chapter 487 The Tragedy Caused by Arrogance

2024-02-14

"Are you very strong?" Hearing the conversation between Yu Jin, the young master, and the stragglers, and seeing the two nodding like followers, Aru couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Hmm?" Yu Jin stroked his chin, then turned his head to give the young master and the scattered soldiers a meaningful look, without saying a word.

"Very strong, the kind of strong that even I can't muster the desire to fight," the young master replied helplessly, his old face drooping.

If Yu Jin weren't strong, he would have run off to cause trouble long ago, instead of coming to this shabby Crane Temple.

Although his experience at Heguan was indeed very memorable.

"It is very strong, probably stronger than your Thunderbird Lord." Considering Aru's admiration for the Thunderbird, the soldier held back.

If that weren't the case, he would have simply removed the "should".

"Really?" Aryu's eyes lit up.

"More or less," Yu Jin said modestly, waving his hand.

"Could you help organize the festival?"

"Why are you still thinking about your stupid festival?"

When Yu Jin saw Aru start reciting her festival again, he immediately stopped her.

"I'm asking you, what's the relationship between Capachelli and Thunderbird? And what's your relationship with Capachelli?"

Ember cast his gaze into the distance, where a shallow beach came into view.

On the shallows, there was a phantom that looked exactly like Aryu, and opposite the phantom was a giant purple falcon whose body was leaping with lightning.

What an interesting melody. You, so small, aren't you afraid of thunder and torrential rain?

The elders in the clan say that a child like me can calm thunder and lightning, and turn torrential rain into gentle rain.

After a brief exchange, Aru's phantom began to sing, and the lightning leaping on the Great Falcon's phantom began to subside.

"Alright, they've hit it off." Upon seeing this, Yu Jin slapped his cheek, feeling that he had hit the nail on the head.

“Kappachiri…, that’s Lord Thunderbird! That’s the name I gave it.”

"As for my relationship with Capachelli, I consider myself a good friend of Capachelli."

At the end, Aryu touched the back of her head sheepishly.

"A good friend? Then why are you willing to sacrifice yourself?" Yu Jin stroked his chin. It seemed that this "good friend" wasn't just Aru's opinion; the giant thunderbird probably considered Aru a friend as well.

However, due to Thunderbird's proud nature, it didn't say it directly.

“Of course I would. Capachelli looks at me more often. If I were to be the sacrifice, it would probably like me even more.”

Aru nodded. Serving as a sacrifice was both a decision made by his father, who was a priest, and his own choice.

He was willing to pay any price, including his own life, to ensure the tribe's prosperity.

"It was all set up perfectly, but look what happened? Can anyone still live in this place? And you've turned into this grotesque mess."

"Did you know before you became a sacrifice that Thunderbird might have considered you a friend?"

Yu Jin clapped his hands. This sacrifice was done very well and became the last one. From now on, He Guan would never have to hold a sacrifice ceremony again.

Aryu shook her head upon hearing this.

“I’m not sure, because Kapachiri doesn’t come every time I sing, and it doesn’t seem to change after I listen.”

"Now you should understand, right? And you've seen the consequences of using you as a sacrifice."

Aru fell silent, though his mind remained stuck at the moment he lost consciousness, when he was a child.

But even children, through thousands of years of reincarnation, can know what happened here.

Aryu nodded silently, answering Ember's question with silence.

"Then why are you still so determined to complete the festival?" Yu Jin reached out and tapped Aru's forehead. His finger broke through the illusion and reality, and touched Aru's forehead in a real way.

The long-lost touch stunned Aru. Ever since He Guan fell into the cycle of reincarnation, he felt like an outsider.

When his familiar tribesmen reappeared before him, he could do nothing. He couldn't touch them, he couldn't speak to them.

The tribespeople simply repeated the same actions they had taken during the last three days of the Crane Watch, day after day. They prepared for the ceremony with great joy, hurriedly offered up the perches, and reverently sacrificed themselves.

Aryu didn't know how many times he had seen this scene.

From the initial fear of seeing herself covered in blood to the current numbness with an expressionless face, only Aryu knows the journey she has gone through.

All he wants now is to finish the festival and sing the songs he didn't get to sing for Capachelli back then.

Ember withdrew his arm, and the disappearance of the sensation brought Aru back to her senses.

“Holding a festival… I just want to restore this land to its former glory. Maybe… if Kapachiri sees how much effort I'm putting in, it will give up punishing its people?”

Aryu's face was ashen; his mind was still that of a child. With his limited intellect, this was the only method he could think of.

"Have you ever succeeded?" Yu Jin asked.

"No, many people have come to Heguan before, but they either ran away or did nothing after completing the ceremony."

"You guys... I thought this was the closest I'd ever come to success. I never expected it to turn out like this."

Aru looked up at the black hole in the sky that was swallowing up lightning, and her heart was filled with shock and disappointment.

"Do you think I did something wrong? Why won't Kapachiri forgive me?" Aru wanted to cry, but no matter what, he couldn't shed a single tear.

"You did something wrong? No, you didn't. The one who's really wrong is that chick with its eye on top of its head."

"The reason for everything is the arrogance of that thunderbird. Because of its arrogance, your blood sacrifice can continue indefinitely."

"The key is that it's not completely arrogant. It will be attracted by your singing, and then it will be like a mute and won't say anything."

"Arrogant, but unable to take risks. When their friends are sacrificed and they have to swallow the bitter pill of their arrogance, they begin to rage in a fit of impotence."

"It's like a chick with its feathers ruffled, all it does is flap its wings and kick up a cloud of dust."

Yu Jin saw the lava flow gradually cooling on the ground. What was "dust and mist" to him was an absolute disaster to the people of He Guan.

"Oh, and those who forcibly throw people up there as sacrifices are the same."

Thinking of the people of He Guan, Yu Jin added, "If the sacrifices are voluntary, Yu Jin can barely accept them, but if they're forced..."

In that situation, all I can say is that it's a good death!