The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

His eyes no longer resembled human eyes, for they were devoid of any emotion. His two dilated, star-like pupils looked more like two incredibly sharp and smooth lenses.

The dilation of his pupils was only a small part of the changes in Anfertas's body. Unlike the outside, his body began to undergo earth-shattering changes along with the fusion.

The most striking feature was Anfortas's expressionless face. His face was blurred, with countless different faces appearing from nowhere and then pressing tightly against his face.

Countless expressionless faces overlapped and then gradually merged. Anfortas's exposed features also began to change as his face melted away.

His eyebrows darkened, his lips thinned, the fat on his face was reduced, and the starlight in his eyes became even clearer...

If there were any scholars from Kanreia here, they would be surprised to find a typical Kanreia person standing before them.

His/her features are regular, and his/her pupils are bright with a cross shape. It is impossible to tell whether he/she is male or female, but you can recognize him/her as a Kanria at a glance.

This guy seems to have all the striking features of a Kanriyan person mixed into his face, regardless of gender.

They weren't ugly, but there was something strange about them. The features weren't actually well-proportioned; they retained some unique characteristics of other people, which made them look odd.

It is precisely these “minor” features that ruin his face shape, making his facial features look less than perfectly harmonious.

“Consciousness entity… confirmed intrusion into consciousness.” Raising his hand, Kanria saw that his arm, like his face, was covered with countless overlapping arms, eventually forming a standard Kanria human arm.

Similarly, the arms have the same flaws as the face—there are some disproportionate features on the arms.

After watching for a while, Kanria lowered his arm; he already knew his situation.

The more people one integrates, the fewer unique characteristics one possesses. When one truly has no distinctive features and is filled only with commonalities, it signifies that all souls have achieved perfect harmony.

Then, "surpassing" will be within reach. Therefore, he is now on the path of seeking transcendence.

[Analysis...]

Parsing failed...

Commonality, perfect similarity.

He had barely conceived of his path to transcendence when he saw perfect coordination.

The ruins were chaotic and disorderly, and the sky was strangely beautiful. From the outside, everything here seemed so disordered, as if it had been randomly kneaded and scattered.

The more chaotic things were outside, the heavier the burden became in Canria's heart—he had feelings, but he needed everyone's feelings to be aligned.

The apparent chaos here is merely an illusion. Through countless deductions and analyses, Kanria always arrives at the same conclusion, and it is always the same.

This only illustrates one conclusion—the bottom layer of this world is determined by only one law.

Or perhaps... this world is merely a projection of a higher individual.

His breathing grew heavier, and beads of sweat appeared on Kanria's forehead. This was the only time everyone's emotions were aligned, and the only time he truly felt what "emotion" was.

But now Canria had no time to savor what "emotion" meant, and he started walking around again.

The scene before them was beyond everyone's expectations. Their previous purpose had been completely forgotten; now, Kanria had only one goal—to quietly escape this consciousness.

He glanced at the gloomy sky, struggled internally for a moment, but ultimately lowered his head and continued walking.

Although he didn't know why Ember hadn't found him yet, one thing Kanria understood was that forcibly breaking away would definitely lead to discovery.

Even without mentioning Ember, those around him could sense the stirring of consciousness. Gods and dragons might not be adept at matters of consciousness, but a simple surge of consciousness was enough to give them a run for their money.

He carved a long, winding path through the thick ash. Kanria had walked for an unknown amount of time, but it was far from time to give up.

Perhaps things aren't all the same here. Maybe in some distant place, the "homogeneity" of this world will be disrupted, and he could try to sneak away.

After a while, Kanria paused, his outstretched body momentarily still. Before him lay a chasm of unknown depth.

But this did not attract his attention. He looked at the lonely island standing in the abyss opposite him and breathed a sigh of relief.

The essence of that space is no longer the original result, but a jumble of random characters without any pattern.

The lifeless pupils instantly regained their color, and the handsome but somewhat eerie face gradually faded, replaced by the fleshy face of Anfortas.

"call!"

Anfortas's body trembled slightly as he gazed at the desolate island shrouded in mist, remaining silent.

"I am a marshal..."

[Go, Marshal!]

The voice in his mind cheered for Anfertas. Though it was cheering, Anfertas felt inexplicably irritated.

He waved his hand, then walked resolutely toward the rocky bridge that spanned the island and the area.

"Remember to send me Intiwat when you visit my grave next year."

……

The path beneath his feet was narrow, with sheer drop-offs on either side. Anfortas proceeded cautiously, finally crossing the chasm and reaching the other side.

Looking up, he saw a scene that was all too familiar to him.

Weapons stuck in the ground, torn flags, countless flickering flames, and the acrid smell of blood and burning flesh...

Without a doubt, this was a battlefield, and as the marshal of Kanria, Anfortas was all too familiar with this scene.

"Oh, someone's here."

A sound was heard, and Anfertas looked around but saw no one.

"Look where? Over here?"

Anfotas felt a dampness coming from his trouser leg. Looking down, he saw that the ground beneath his feet had sunk.

In the sunken earth, something glossy and black had crept up to his ankles. The dampness he had just felt was from this thing.

"Wow. I actually changed my soul. I didn't expect to catch a bastard."

A chill ran from his feet straight to Anfertas's head. Even though flames were burning everywhere, he still shivered instantly.

This coldness is not a tactile sensation, but a chilling coldness that comes from the depths of one's heart, like facing the darkest part of one's own soul.

"Your connection is rather crude; you're merely kneading everyone's souls together. You'll suffer a great loss if you do that."

A deep, resonant sound came from beneath their feet, sounding both pleasant and mocking.

Upon hearing this, Anfortas seemed to remember something, his eyes widened, and he roared out.

"Disconnect!"

"Hahaha, too late, accept the defilement!!!"

Anfortas suddenly went black, and then his body collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Chapter 734 Lessons

2024-06-22

"Hmph, accept the defilement!!!"

This was the last sentence Anfortas heard, and also the first sentence that came from outside his mind's consciousness space.

"The sound... is coming from outside..."

"The Marshal, he..."

"what is that!"

Within the pure white space of consciousness, a black sliver suddenly clung to it. The blackness continuously devoured the boundaries; it initially resided only at the edge of the space of consciousness, but at a certain moment, it instantly broke through the barrier and rushed into this space of consciousness.

The dark, viscous waves crashed against the shore, swallowing up countless shimmering points of light in the blink of an eye.

At first, these points of light kept fleeing, but the area of ​​the dark swamp was getting bigger and bigger. The fleeing people immediately realized one thing - if they continued to run away, they would definitely be swallowed up and left without a trace.

[Consciousness merging, fighting against this thing!]

The remaining specks of light instantly came together, merging into one, and a "person" was gradually born.

But it wasn't just the light spots that weren't swallowed that flew over; those light spots that were already in the dark swamp also broke free of the mud and merged into the forming Kanria.

"call……"

Kanria's body was half illusory and half pitch black, and the darkness was constantly expanding, making him increasingly powerless.

"Is the road to restoration over?" It was unclear whether it was Kanria who was sighing or the people among them.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and his limbs were so weak that he couldn't even stand up. Kanria could only watch helplessly as the spreading swamp swallowed him up.

"Connecting everyone together? Only someone who's never seen consciousness poison would do that."

A deep, mocking voice drifted over, and this was the last sound Kanria ever heard.

……

"Hmph! Defile! Defile!"

"Snapped!"

"Ouch!"

Ember saw Deep writhing on Anfortas's body, muttering words like "defilement," and then a big punch sent mud flying everywhere.

"I've noticed you're learning from that Snow Eater from the royal city's sewers pretty quickly," Yu Jin said in a somewhat unfriendly tone.

"Defilement," is something a very, very ugly guy in the royal city's sewers likes to mutter.

How ugly is he? Uglier than Ember, and more importantly, he doesn't have Ember's sunshine in his heart. He spends all day hiding in the sewers, either thinking about inserting the horns from his armor into other people's bodies or thinking about Snow Eater.

Anyway, when Ember learned that his name was "The Coprophagist," he was incredibly surprised. Then, Ember gave the Coprophagist a bunch of chocolates, and then he was chased and hacked at by the Coprophagist. After that, the Coprophagist also became part of the snacks.

Why don't coprophagocytics eat snacks? This is a question that Ember still doesn't understand.

"You haven't caught the snacks, have you?" Yu Jin suddenly thought of a possibility. He looked at You Sui with suspicion. The power of Soul Five is so strong? It can actually infect You Sui!

"Boss, we've found their location and the reason for this."

Upon seeing Ember's expression, Deep immediately changed the subject. Although it lacked the sense of touch of a normal human, it simply couldn't accept snacks!

"Talk about it!"

As expected, Ember's attention was diverted.

"Their location is underground here." You Sui recalled what he had seen, and the mud began to ripple and gather. Soon, a map appeared on the mud.

"awesome!"

Upon seeing the map, Ember immediately clapped. The reason was simple: it was located in the upper right of Mondstadt… underwater.