The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, and Sumeru all seem to possess wonders that are not natural but surpass nature; without exception, they are all miracles.

After admiring the sand-blocking wall, Ember flew over it and officially entered the desert.

He had been to the desert once before, but since the Great Tree King had led the way, Ember was completely unfamiliar with the desert's terrain, so he didn't know where he had flown to.

However, he had complete faith in the Great Tree King, so the embers lay comfortably in the air and enjoyed the scenery.

The desert landscape is far less captivating than the rainforest; it's all sand, sand, sand, nothing but sand.

Yu Jin only watched for a short while before becoming somewhat confused. If he were thrown inside, he probably wouldn't be able to tell which way was which.

Fortunately, the Great Tree King could distinguish them, as could her large flowers. After a period of yellow sand, a patch of red land, different from the surrounding area, finally appeared before the embers.

The land there looked as if it had been eroded by flowing water, forming a huge depression. However, in the center of the depression, a portion of the land had not been completely washed away and still stood within the depression.

Thus, the following scene was created: a huge pit rises up on an equally huge piece of land, and water flows through the depression between the pit and the land.

Where there is water, there is life, and a prosperous village was built on the land that rose up in the center of a depression.

Finally, there was some greenery in the desert, although it was just some cacti and sparse shrubs, but Yu Jin still found it fascinating.

Then everything went black for him.

"What is that?!" After struggling for a while, Ember crawled out of the darkness.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that what had "eaten" him was actually an equally enormous flower.

"Is this the support the Great Tree King was talking about?" Yu Jin scratched his head, thinking that this was probably true.

He is currently on the outskirts of the village, where the desolation is almost as great as the desert outside. The sudden appearance of a large flower could only be the work of the Great Tree King.

"puff!"

After taking a few breaths, the flower bud released several plump and round coconuts. Then, the enormous flower bud shrank back into the soil.

Yu Jin ignored Coconut; he watched the flower bud shrink back, and felt it was becoming more and more familiar.

"This thing... seems to be an enlarged version of a ley line flower?"

Scratching his head, Yu Jin stopped caring so much. Picking up the coconut from the ground, he turned around and looked at Aru Village behind him.

He was now at the edge of the sunken pit, with Aru Village just ahead.

However, a river separates them. The river flows quietly between Aru Village and the cave wall, like a moat for the area.

Standing at the edge of the pit, Ember ran around it at top speed. Sure enough, he discovered the entrance to Aru Village.

Aru Village is hidden among sand dunes and barren mountains, with only a tiny, inconspicuous crack as the only way to enter.

Passing through the gap, a dirt road leads directly to the bustling village of Aru in front of us.

Of course, the prosperity here is relative to the desert. Human settlements are extremely rare in the desert; of the few that I saw when I flew through the air, almost all of them existed in the form of tribes.

In comparison, Aru Village, which has developed into a large village, is already a remarkable metropolis in the harsh desert.

"Wuhu, Aru Village, here I come!" Looking at the peaceful village ahead, Yu Jin swung his limbs and ran over in a flurry of activity.

But before he even reached Aru Village, he discovered a fellow just as arrogant as himself.

"$&#..."

The man in the robes of a scholar from the Order of the Church was flailing his arms and running faster than Ember. Not only that, he kept muttering something incomprehensible, making him even more insane than Ember.

"Hey! Did you come here on purpose to steal my thunder?" Yu Jin poked the flamboyant figure beside him.

Unfortunately, he remained unmoved, seemingly engrossed in his own world.

"Suboman! Why are you out here again?!" Yu Jin and the unknown man ran wildly together, and then he saw a red-skinned guard running out of Aru Village.

His skin wasn't a pinkish red, but a sun-kissed red, so much so that Yu Jin thought it was almost black.

The guards rushed forward and caught the frantically running scholar. Soon, several villagers came running out of the village, and together they carried the still-shaking scholar back to the village.

Ember watched the scene unfold silently. He had already realized that the guy next to him was a madman.

What puzzled him was that the villagers of Aru Village seemed to take the man's behavior for granted.

"Is this Aru Village?" Yu Jin asked, patting the guard on the shoulder as if uncertain.

"That's right, traveler. If you follow the village rules, you will have a peaceful and quiet night."

Seeing that Yu Jin was dressed strangely and had run in from outside, the guard explained to him the most important thing about Aru Village.

"Phew! Is this really Aru Village? I almost thought it was a desert mental hospital!" Yu Jin breathed a sigh of relief. Congratulations, congratulations! The Great Tree King's aim was still pretty good.

Upon hearing this, the guard twitched his lips. Although he didn't want to admit it, there was indeed a slight hint of this in Aru Village.

He sighed, then added to the embers:

"That man was a village guard from the Sumeru Order Academy. Please don't pay him any attention. Also, for your safety and his, please do not approach him."

"A mad scholar? Studying knowledge can drive you crazy? Is it really necessary to work so hard?" Yu Jin was taken aback when he heard this.

Are the students at the Order of the Cavalry this ruthless? They can actually drive themselves crazy with their studies!

"I don't know about that, but there have indeed been students from the Order of the Church going crazy, and there have been more of them recently."

"Let's not talk about that, traveler. If I may ask, what brings you to Aru Village...?"

The guard sized up Yu Jin. He was an outsider, dressed strangely, and looked exactly like a black market merchant.

Black market merchants are irrelevant; anyone can enter as long as they follow the rules of Aru Village.

"Looking for someone, just came by to hang out."

Yu Jin tossed the large coconut to the guard and wandered off into Aru Village on his own.

Chapter 656 Desert Mental Hospital

2024-05-09

"Oh la la—"

"Alas! Alas! Alas!"

"A bright red sun in the sky, a blood-red moon on the ground, la la la!"

……

Yu Jin squatted on the street of Aru Village, looking at the lively scene before him, feeling that the world was so noisy and that he couldn't fit in.

The mad scholars dressed in academic robes swung their limbs around Aru Village. Some of them ran wildly on the rooftops with their hands in bizarre poses, while others seemed to be possessed by Hilichurls, digging at something on the ground. Still others were even holding a lump of unknown things in their hands and eating them with relish.

The chaotic scene before him made Yu Jin realize one thing: he was still a long way from being truly mentally ill.

“Red mushrooms and tree roots, they’re incredibly delicious, do you want some?” A mad scholar noticed Ember and immediately shared his half-eaten “food” with Ember.

"Thanks." Yu Jin took the flattened "red mushroom" with a black handprint on it, which was wrapped with the roots of an unknown plant, and swallowed it in no time.

"It's delicious, you're a genius." Even though he couldn't taste it, it didn't stop Yu Jin from praising the eccentric scholar who was happy to share.

"La la la~"

Unfortunately, the mad scholar didn't hear what Ember was saying at all. He just hummed an unknown song to himself and then pulled out a bunch of withered plant roots and shriveled red mushrooms from his pocket.

In front of Ember, he unabashedly displayed his culinary skills. This successfully caught Ember's attention, since Ember was truly a master chef.

Anyone with all four limbs intact, even someone with a mental disability, would be a better cook than Ember. In other words, anyone could teach Ember a thing or two about cooking—even if the person in front of him was mentally ill.

"Help! Arakka is eating random things again!" The voice from afar paused for a moment, then sounded even more urgent.

"He even shared his food with outsiders!"

"what?!"

Exclamations came from afar, and then a large group of dark-skinned, rough-looking desert people ran over.

"Ah! Someone's trying to sabotage my research!" As soon as Araca saw the villagers of Aru Village running over, he immediately gathered up the odds and ends on the ground, and ran off with his arms outstretched.

Not only him, but all the other mad scholars that Ember had just met, no matter what "good things" they had been doing before, had now all turned to running away.

Aru Village suddenly became even more lively, with villagers chasing after the mad scholar. Judging from the current situation, it seems unlikely that things will calm down anytime soon.

"To whom did Arakka give what he had?"

"Give it to this person!"

Hurried footsteps sounded, and soon Yu Jin saw a blue-haired woman with heterochromia leading a few guards approaching.

"Phew... thank goodness, it looks like he didn't eat." Candice breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ember standing straight in the street.

Arakka always liked to stuff people with strange and unusual things, and the key point was that he always claimed that these things were delicacies.

The villagers of Aru Village naturally didn't believe it, but there were outsiders around. Who knows, maybe someone saw Arakka eating so happily and couldn't resist trying it?

This had happened several times before, and it turned out that only Arakka himself was unharmed by consuming what he made. Every single other outsider who tried it ended up in a hospital bed.

"I ate it, but I couldn't taste anything."

"What? You've already eaten?!"

Candice, who was some distance away, instantly appeared beside Ember and began to remove the helmet from his head.

"Hey, hey, hey, you can't just take this off like that." Ember jumped back to create some distance between himself and Candice. Good grief, the desert is definitely more open and uninhibited than other places. Taking off her helmet right off the bat—who does that?

“Candice, I am the guardian of this place, and also one of the few doctors in the village.”

"I was just checking to see if you were foaming at the mouth or rolling your eyes. Based on past experience, people who eat Alaka's food often get poisoned without realizing it."

"But judging from your appearance, you seem to be alright. Please forgive me for my rudeness earlier. We welcome outsiders."

Seeing Yu Jin's energetic appearance, Candice finally believed that he truly possessed extraordinary physical abilities. After briefly introducing herself, she smiled and nodded at Yu Jin.

"I see. It's alright. Hello, Director. I'd like to ask where all of you mental patients came from. There are so many of you, aren't there?"

After listening to Candice's introduction, Ember stepped forward and warmly shook hands with her.

"What dean? What mental patient?"

"Aren't you the director of this mental hospital? As for the mental patients..."

"Aruru~"

A flamboyant figure darted across the rooftops nearby, followed by several equally swift villagers who ran after him.

"Hmm." Yu Jin didn't say anything more; he just shrugged. Because the facts had already spoken for him.