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

Zhong Li stood in the center of the deck and reached out to unbutton the dark long shirt.

Zhong Li's movements were slow, but the moment he unbuttoned his collar, an invisible pressure spread along the deck surface.

The dark long robe slipped off his shoulders, revealing a pure white robe. The hem of the robe fluttered slightly in the wind. The edges were unadorned, yet they possessed a texture formed by the repeated hammering of long years.

He reached out and grasped at the air, and a long spear, entirely formed from condensed rock element, took shape in Zhongli's palm. The spear was taller than him, and its surface was covered with evenly distributed dark gold patterns, like rock layers repeatedly scorched by sunlight.

Daines Reeb drew his sword beside him. He didn't say anything, but simply stepped forward, holding the sword horizontally in front of him. The gaze that swept across his sword accurately passed over Zhongli's shoulder and landed on the dark purple figure still standing on the water in front of him.

Zhong Li turned her head and glanced at him: "Together."

Daines Reb did not answer, but simply pressed the tip of his sword forward half an inch.

For the first time, the extremely fierce rider on the sea adjusted his stance. He took his greatsword off his back, gripped the hilt with both hands, and pointed the tip downwards. When the sword touched the sea surface, it pressed a slowly recovering indentation into the surrounding water, as if something extremely heavy had been pressed into a soft surface, and the indentation was spreading outwards at its own unique speed.

The Extreme Evil Knight's gaze shifted between Zhong Li and Daines Reeb before he spoke, his voice still carrying the quality filtered through his armor: "This battle should be more interesting than I expected."

Zhongli made his move the moment he uttered those words. The spear spun half a circle in his palm before thrusting out along an almost horizontal trajectory.

The ruthless rider sidestepped the spear tip, and the greatsword completed a full spin in its recovery, swinging towards Zhong Li's waist with more force than ever before. Zhong Li did not dodge. He withdrew his spear to defend, holding it horizontally at his side to catch the side of the greatsword.

The aftershocks of the two metal collisions spread across the sea, churning into several expanding waves in the distance. Daines Reeb had already entered the fray before the aftershocks had even dissipated.

Dainesreb's swordplay was completely different from Zhongli's. It lacked the imposing, sweeping feel of a spear, and instead, it precisely grazed the gaps in the Extreme Evil Knight's armor.

He unleashed four or five consecutive sword strikes, each landing on the edge of the armor's seams. Although they failed to cause any real damage, they forced the Extreme Evil Knights to divert their attention from dealing with Zhongli while simultaneously dealing with him.

The Evil Knight took two steps back, switching his greatsword from a one-handed grip to a two-handed one, and as he did so, he pushed back Dains Reeb's attack from the position closest to him.

Yakoda stood at the stern, her bow fully drawn.

Yakoda didn't rush to release the bowstring. Instead, she maintained that posture, adjusting her breathing and the stability of her bow arm, as if using this time to determine the trajectory and force of the arrow.

A phantom appeared behind Yakoda—its outline more defined than before, a centaur hovering above the sea, its entire body covered in a flowing silver-white light, like a metal statue enveloped in moonlight. The phantom's bow was already drawn, the arrow resting on the string, gleaming with silver-white light, its movement synchronized with the bow in Yakoda's hand.

The two bow arcs are in the same direction, with the same force, and the timing of their full draw is almost exactly the same.

Yakoda released her grip. At the same moment, the phantom also released its bowstring. The two silvery-white beams merged into a thicker arrow the instant they were released, tracing a straight path across the entire sea surface.

The airflow continued to surge along the path of the arrow, pushing the seawater on both sides and forming a slowly closing channel.

The Evil Rider sensed the arrow's direction the moment it flew. He didn't dodge to the side, retreat, or parry with his greatsword.

He simply plunged the greatsword into the seawater beneath his feet, then raised his hands, palms facing forward, to meet the silvery-white light flying towards him head-on.

The arrow struck the crossed arms of the Evil Knight. The shockwave spread outwards in an instant, pushing the seawater in that area into a wall of waves that was spreading in all directions.

The ship was propelled backward by the shockwave, and those on deck needed to regain their balance to stand upright. Fanes gripped the railing at the edge of the ship and looked through the scattering waves—the Evil Knight was still standing in the same spot.

The Evil Knight's arms remained crossed, but cracks appeared on the surface of his armor. The cracks started from his palms, extended along the outside of his arms to his shoulders, and then spread downwards along the breastplate, covering most of the armor's surface before stopping.

Then the cracks began to slowly heal. First the edges began to close, then the width of the cracks gradually decreased. After about two or three breaths, the surface of the armor was restored to its original state, with only a few shallow, almost invisible marks remaining, like backup data that had been recorded but not completely erased.

Daines Reeb looked in that direction, his sword tip still at a ready angle: "Has he become that strong? This arrow is already comparable to the power of the Frostfire Nail."

Zhongli stood beside him, the tip of his spear tilted slightly downwards: "It's a pity that Yakoda is still too young. If she could have matured a few more years, that arrow might not have been a problem for us."

The Evil Knight lowered his hands, the surface of his armor now completely smooth. He turned his head, the light shining through the two thin slits slightly brighter than before, as if using that brief change in brightness to confirm his earlier assessment: "Finally, I've met someone who can fight."

A silvery-white light shone above him. The light was brighter than the arrow from before, carrying a compressed sense of stability unique to those who had traversed a great distance. Lan's illusory form reappeared in mid-air.

This time He did not remain silent. His voice descended from the sky, neither too high nor too low, carried by the wind to everyone's ears: "If my power could truly descend upon this world, you would already know how to write the word 'death'."

The Evil Knight looked up at the figure. His posture remained steady, but Fanes noticed that his fingers, gripping the greatsword, tightened slightly when she spoke those words: "I will come to you myself. I hope you will still be able to say the same thing then."

Lan's figure tilted her head slightly above the sea, as if reassessing her earlier judgment from that angle: "You have no chance anymore."

The Extreme Rider's movements paused for a moment. The pause was very short, but everyone present noticed that brief moment of stillness, which was almost blown away by the next gust of wind.

His voice cut off the edge of that stagnation: "You abandoned the light of this world, and in doing so, you were abandoned by its darkness. Every star you gazed upon never belonged to you. The power you possessed never truly belonged to you!"

The wind on the sea stopped at that moment. The light in the slits of the Extreme Evil Knight's eyes began to pulsate violently after hearing those words, the frequency increasing rapidly, as if something was churning, colliding, and searching for an exit inside that layer of armor.

The Evil Knight stood on the sea, still not moving, but Fanes noticed that his fingers, which were gripping the greatsword, were trembling slightly at an extremely fast frequency.

The voice of the Extreme Evil Knight came from beneath the armor, carrying a quality that Fanes had never heard before, like something deformed after being pushed to its limit: "You're saying... I'm not worthy?"

The tremor didn't stop; instead, it spread upwards along his arm, paused at his shoulder, and then spread downwards to his waist. (His defenses were broken!)

-

The reason why the Extreme Evil Knight broke through the defense is quite simple. First, the Great Storm God on the other side is really strong. Second, the Extreme Evil Knight's power is all "given" by the Abyss! Strictly speaking, the Abyss can take back 99% of his power at any time, and the remaining one percent is simply confiscated!

As for why the abyss abandoned him.

Abyss: You made the wrong choice! You're tired of living, but I don't want to die!