Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

Yakoda studied the wind-attribute eye of the god for three whole days.

On the first day, she tried the most conventional method—holding the Eye of God in her palm to concentrate, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

When I opened my eyes, the Eye of God was still lying quietly in my palm, its pale blue shell without a trace of light. I tried several positions: holding it in my left hand, holding it in my right hand, placing it flat, standing it upright, and upside down, but it didn't budge.

The next day, she tried a different approach, placing the Eye of God on the windowsill to bask in the moonlight all day, having heard that some Eyes of God are more easily activated during a full moon. The moon was indeed round and bright that night, but the Eye of God remained unresponsive.

On the third day, she soaked it in a bowl of cool water drawn from an icy spring outside Winterfell. After a cup of tea, she took it out and dried it, but it remained unchanged. She tried arranging a circle of elemental crystals around it on the table, and then replaced them with dried moss and unknown mineral fragments brought back from the cave. The outer shell always maintained that silent, pale blue luster, as if it were asleep.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, she finally turned to the page in the encyclopedia about the activation conditions of the Eye of God.

The annotation was written in a corner paragraph, the font slightly smaller than the main text, and the wording more euphemistic. The gist was that the Eye of God is not activated by a method, but by an inner yearning.

The holder needs to have a desire for a certain goal, or more precisely, a desire to be watched over by the gods. When the desire is strong enough, the gods will naturally respond, and the Eye of God will light up.

Yakoda read the passage twice, then closed the encyclopedia and placed it on the corner of the table. She leaned back in her chair and remained silent for a while. Then she spoke, her tone carrying a calm "this seems a bit difficult."

"This seems a bit difficult. I only recently got Wendy out of the internet cafe."

She relived the scene in her mind—when Wendy climbed in through the same window for the third time, she had already pushed the chair to the corner to block his path, then she grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him down the corridor to the back door, where the person outside even fastened the door bolt back on.

Wendy's hat brim was askew, and his violin case got stuck. Yakoda heard him mutter something about how the winds of love, tolerance, and freedom shouldn't be treated this way.

After hearing this, Yakoda glanced back at the back door that had been closed again, thinking that next time she came, she shouldn't try to come in through the window.

Looking back now, Yakoda realizes that she probably wasn't the kind of devout believer who would leave a deep impression on the wind god.

He glanced down at the pale blue Eye of God lying quietly on the table, picked it up and weighed it in his palm, then untied the drawstring of the rarely opened storage bag on the side of the table and put it inside.

Inside the bag were several rolls of old blueprints that were not frequently used and a box of unopened spare arrow shafts. When the Eye of God fell in, it slid lightly across the fabric surface and stopped in the gap between the edge of the blueprints and the lid of the arrow shaft box. The pale blue sheen on the outer shell was half obscured by the shadow at the opening of the bag.

Yakoda tightened the drawstring of the bag, pushed it back onto the corner of the table, stood up, stretched, and put the matter aside.

Just as she reached the door of her room, preparing to go to the cafeteria, the communication terminal on her desk rang. She turned back and pressed the answer button; the voice on the other end was brief and clear.

"A large abyssal rift has appeared in Beiyuan during winter, exceeding the handling capacity of regular patrol teams. How many rapid response units do you have available?"

Yakoda tucked the terminal under her shoulder and bent down to reach the tactical backpack, already loaded with spare ammunition, under the bed: "There's still one full-strength squad left. Four armored vehicles, two transport vehicles, and personnel are in place. What's the timeframe?"

"The sooner the better. The fracture edges are widening, and two nearby exploration stations have already been withdrawn."

Yakoda fastened the clasp on her backpack: "I'm coming right now."

When Fanes encountered her in the corridor, she was carrying a cup of hot tea and heading towards her office. Seeing her fully armed appearance, he didn't ask any questions, but simply stepped aside to let her pass: "Where are you going?" (Fanes didn't participate in 99% of military decisions)

Yakoda tightened the wrist strap of her tactical glove: "A large rift has appeared in Kitahara, and I have to lead a team there to deal with it. I've already notified them to prepare the team's departure and logistical supplies in advance. We'll start as soon as I arrive."

Fanes leaned against the corridor wall and took a sip of tea: "Perfect timing to test the new weapons. The rooftop launchers that were delivered to the warehouse last time are already installed, and they're equipped with high-explosive anti-magic ammunition."

Yakoda fastened the backpack straps to her chest: "Okay, boss, I guarantee I'll complete the mission."

Yakoda turned and walked toward the barracks, her pace quickening slightly.

As Yakoda boarded the first armored vehicle, the rest of the convoy was already assembling. Four gray-white armored vehicles drove out of the camp gate one after another, the launch pads on the roofs gleaming with a new metallic sheen in the morning light, and the ventilation grilles and mounting clips on both sides were all new.

Sitting in the passenger seat of the second car, the terminal panel displayed the current location of the convoy and the route ahead. The sparse shrubs on both sides of the road gradually transitioned into low tundra meadows, and then slowly faded into a gray-brown bare soil, with a few weathered pebbles scattered along the edges.

The convoy maintained a stable speed in the mid-range of off-road mode, and any stray monsters encountered along the way were precisely eliminated by the automatic shooting racks on the roof of the lead train before they could get close to the convoy.

The convoy arrived at a temporary supply point about 100 kilometers from the edge of the crevasse in the afternoon. It was a relatively flat, hard surface with little cover in the surroundings.

Yakoda jumped out of the car, stood on the bare earth, and looked up in the direction of the crack—the horizon at the end of her vision was a little darker than the rest of the sky, with a faint purplish-gray hue, as if something was seeping up from the depths of the earth.

As Yakoda was organizing the convoy's formation, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a figure standing beside a pile of rocks at the edge of the supply point. The edge of the wide conical hat trembled slightly in the wind, and the end of the purple ribbon hung down from the shoulder to the waist, swaying gently with the air current, like fingertips adjusting the position of a chess piece.

Yakoda made out the outline of the person who came, and her attention lingered on the figure for a moment.

The stragglers stood there, unarmed and without any entourage; only one person stood quietly beside the pile of rubble.

His gaze passed over Yakoda's shoulder and landed in the direction of the rift, as if he were assessing the distance and scope of impact ahead according to his own pace and plan.

Yakoda loosened her grip on the terminal panel and said in that direction, "The Sixth Seat Lord is here too?"

The skirmisher turned his head and glanced at her. There was no obvious hostility in that glance, nor was there any intention to chat. It seemed more like he was checking who was standing in front of the supply point and what the next step was.

"According to the latest topographic survey results, the rate of expansion of the fissure edge is faster than expected, and the breakthrough time is significantly earlier than previously estimated."

The skirmisher shifted his gaze from the direction of the crevice to Yakoda, who was standing at the edge of the convoy. After a moment's pause, he spoke: "If your men are ready, then proceed at your own pace. I'll take charge of the other edge."

After finishing his sentence, the soldier did not stay in the same spot. He turned around and walked away along the slope on the side of the pile of rocks.

Yakoda stood there watching his figure walk away along the gentle slope on one side of the fissure. He stopped on a ridge that rose above the ground, the edge of his hat stilling for a moment in the wind, before he began to move forward along the edge of the fissure at a steady pace, keeping his route roughly parallel to the edge of the fissure.

Yakoda glanced down to confirm the advance line and coordinates marked on the terminal panel, then retreated to the side of the first armored vehicle and fastened the latch on the edge of the window. Through the side window, she looked towards the slowly extending crack ahead—the purplish-gray hue at the edge of the crack was still spreading, like a layer of rosy light being slowly pushed towards the ground, clinging to the cross-section of the entire permafrost and spreading upwards, coloring every inch of the crack's sidewall and the nearby surface it passed through with the same color, and covering more and more areas as it continued to move.