Lu Bu, the Thunder General, is my adoptive father in Genshin Impact.

The gentle voice stimulated his hearing, the smooth, jade-like skin provided a soft touch, and the refreshing fragrance was like that of an ice lotus. The beautiful face of the fairy girl with her delicate features and long eyelashes brought Xiao Yi a visual feast...

The wooden planks used to maintain the boundary between the two sides had already collapsed under the weight of the rain, indicating that she had rolled over in her sleep.

Xiao Yi breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the girl didn't have the bad habit of killing people in her dreams. The black-tasseled spear was still on the bed. If she were to use it to stab him in the middle of the night, who could withstand that?

He estimated that it was around four in the morning. Xiao Yi didn't want to see the outskirts of Liyue at four o'clock, and then remembered that he had agreed to meet the Fatui at eight o'clock, so he decided to sleep a little longer.

As for the heavy object on his body, Xiao Yi was a little conflicted. Should he put Gan Yu back in its original position? If it disturbed her precious sleep, that wouldn't be good. But if he let her continue to chew on it, not to mention whether he could fall asleep, his clothes would be chewed to pieces sooner or later.

After all, what drives the sweet rain in dreams is not some improper desire, but pure and utter hunger.

Perhaps a few hours later, when you open your eyes, you'll find yourself covered in crystal-clear, white lotus-scented saliva from a Qilin—it might be extremely rare, and could even be used in medicine, but covering your entire body with it would be too astringent... no, too strange.

Besides, after Gan Yu finishes chewing on the clothes, who knows where else she might chew on? They are now a couple in name only, and losing one's integrity is a serious matter!

To ensure everything went smoothly, Xiao Yi decided to push her back to her original position and began to reach out to Gan Yu.

However, Xiao Yi was completely unaware that a few minutes earlier, three people had sneaked up to the door.

Because the wooden door was damaged by Wind Fist and Ice Fatty yesterday, Xiao Yi brought wooden boards and nails last night to seal the door from the inside, intending to make do for one night and repair it later.

The problem is that the wooden planks have gaps. Although the patrolling soldiers didn't dare to peek, the foolish crowd, who had always coveted Xiao Yi's position, were eager to find a handle against him.

They stood in front of the door.

Just as Wind Fist Runner and Fatty Hall were about to press their eyes against the cracks in the wooden planks, Mira grabbed their clothes and pulled them away, preventing them from peeking into the room.

"The lady is resting inside too, aren't you ashamed!" The Thunderfire Sorcerer pressed himself against the crack. "You all stand still, I'll report on the scene inside the room."

"Don't hide anything from the truth. Tell me what you saw," Feng Quan instructed.

“Definitely,” said the Thunderfire Sorcerer.

However, when she saw the scene in the room, she couldn't help but make a strange sound.

"ah--"

Feng Quan, standing behind him, quickly covered his companion's mouth with his large hand to prevent the young couple inside the room from noticing.

"What did you see?" the fat man asked, puzzled.

Once the Thunderfire Sorcerer had calmed down, Wind Fist released his grip.

“They don’t seem to be asleep!” the Thunderfire sorcerer described what he saw in a low, trembling voice.

“They nailed the door shut at 11 p.m., and it’s 4 a.m. now. They can’t possibly still be awake,” Feng Quan analyzed seriously. “Could it be that they’re really plotting something nefarious?”

“Both of them are in bed,” the Thunderfire Sorcerer said tremulously.

Strange, I'm not asleep but I'm in bed... Could it be...?

"What are they doing?" the fat man asked, extremely curious.

The Thunderfire Sorcerer's cheeks grew increasingly flushed, as if blood would seep out at any moment.

"He, they, the lady is lying on top of the master, touching the master's collarbone... the master is starting to move... Ah, is this something I can see?!"

"What happened?" Ice Fatty and Wind Fist asked in unison.

"He slowly reached out towards the lady, touched her, and then... I can't watch anymore!" The Thunderfire sorcerer, his face flushed, jumped off the door and angrily berated his two companions, "You suspect they're a couple in name only? Is this also acting? Staying up at four in the morning just to put on an act for us? You're utterly shameless!!!"

The Thunderfire Sorcerer turned and left, so Wind Fist had no choice but to follow her. Ice Fatty wanted to peek through the crack in the door to see what was happening, but Wind Fist grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away.

In fact, if they had looked for just one more second, they would have seen the truth—Xiao Yi mercilessly reached out and pushed Gan Yu back to her original position, then slowly covered her with the blanket.

……

At around 6:40 in the morning, the Qilin girl opened her hazy, jewel-like purple-red eyes and found that Xiao Yi had already woken up and was sitting on the edge of the bed as if contemplating life.

"What's wrong, Mr. Xiao Yi?" She wiped her eyes.

With his back to the girl, Xiao Yi suddenly uttered some outrageous words.

"Miss Gan Yu, would you still be willing to share a bed with me tonight?"

"Huh?!" Gan Yu was so startled that she immediately retreated until she was against the wall, hugging her pillow to her chest as a ridiculous but only shield. "Why are you suddenly saying such strange things?"

Xiao Yi turned around and showed her the wet upper half of his shirt and the collar that was almost chewed off.

“Miss Gan Yu, you’ve already done all this today,” Xiao Yi said with a wry smile, “and it’s caused me a lot of trouble…”

Gan Yu quickly realized what was happening, turned the pillow upside down under her knees, and swiftly assumed the dogeza (earth-body sitting) posture.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Xiao Yi. Please forgive me. I'll do anything..."

Chapter 141 Xiao Yi, Forever a God! (4k)

So that's how it is. The Celestial Venerable's power comes from the Dragon King Ruoduo, or rather, he uses the sealed Dragon King as a tool to draw upon the earth's veins in order to achieve his goal.

Standing atop the mountain, Xiao Yi gazed at the giant device beneath the Fulong Tree in the distance and made this guess in his heart.

It was a large cylindrical machine, 50 meters long and 15 meters in diameter, with a monotonous silver-gray surface, a metallic creation embodying technological power.

In stark contrast to its plain appearance, the "nail" is surrounded by all sorts of particles that fly freely like fireflies. The closer you get to the device, the denser the particles become, like a colorful mist surrounding the nail.

The particles are red, blue, white, and purple, representing fire, water, ice, and lightning respectively. These four attributes are also the energy that the Dragon King Ratna can absorb.

Perhaps due to the agitation of elemental forces, there was no dense fog around the nail, so Xiao Yi could clearly see the true appearance of the device.

As for how he got to the top of the mountain and found this treasure, that story begins this morning.

Not long after he and Gan Yu finished breakfast, Feng Quan and Bing Pang from the Fools' Trio approached them, pretending to be helpful, and said they would fulfill their promise from yesterday to lead the way.

Almost half of the people were Thunderfire sorcerers from Xiao Yi's side. She seemed very unwilling, but she was worried that her companions would do something out of line, so she followed along anyway.

Thus, Xiao Yi and Gan Yu, led by the three fools of the Fools, arrived at this high mountain with a wide view.

It must be admitted that the scene of the nail under the dragon tree absorbing elements and then releasing the energy into the air as particles is quite beautiful.

However, the Dragon King Ruoduo, who was sealed under the tree, might not think that way. Instead, he wanted to crawl out of the ground and give that self-proclaimed Great Righteousness and Boundless Heavenly Venerable a good slap.

According to the legend that the dragon tree is the tail of the Dragon King, and considering the location where the nail was inserted, it should have hit the Dragon King's buttocks perfectly, giving it a solid stab.

Unfortunately, the Dragon King has been sealed away by the Emperor for a long time. A few months ago, the Emperor strengthened the stability of the seal, so it won't be able to climb out and slap others for a while.

Therefore, this task should be entrusted to Xiao Yi.

He pondered silently: if the nails were completely destroyed, the mastermind would lose its source of power, and wouldn't that mean victory without a fight?

The troublesome bald-headed Ironclad, who possesses an immortal body, also received blessings from the Celestial Venerable. Ultimately, the large nail in the distance is the source of all evil and must be destroyed.

Although Xiao Yi is an impatient person, he is not so impatient as to lose his mind and directly unleash his power to charge towards the large machinery.

Before destroying the Celestial Venerable's energy source, he planned to gather more intelligence in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Besides, since the Fools had brought him here, it meant they wouldn't deliberately hide anything. He took the opportunity to ask them all about the nail and the Celestial.

"The thick fog that shrouds Liyue, is it also from here?" Xiao Yi looked at Boris beside him.

“That’s right. Lord Ironclad told me that the nails collect the energy of the ley lines and then release it outwards to the Celestial’s main body, which then creates the dense fog that fills Teyvat.” Windfist raised his big hand and scratched his head. “Even so, the Celestial is a very cautious person. Not only have we never seen his main body, but even Lord Ironclad, the second-in-command, has never seen it.”

Diablo-type character? Xiao Yi wondered.

That makes sense. The mastermind behind it all is a time traveler with a twisted personality, so his morbid caution is to be expected.

Besides, the Celestial Venerable enjoys watching Kamen Rider.

Although the slippery slope fallacy of making exaggerated inferences based on only a few clues is logically unacceptable, Xiao Yi couldn't help but speculate: liking Kamen Rider might mean he's a shut-in; shut-ins don't like going out or socializing, which is why his subordinates never see the Celestial Venerable's true form…

He shook his head to dismiss the strange thought; his priority was to destroy the nail, not to determine whether the mastermind was Zhai.

After all, staying at home isn't a sin of being immature or making mistakes.

Xiao Yi continued, "The device that amplifies the power of the Celestial Venerable is just placed here. What if it's destroyed by someone with malicious intent? Aren't there any defensive measures?"

If the other party answers "no", Xiao Yi will immediately unleash the power of the Thunder God and fly over to smash this source of all evil.

Looking back, he realized it had been a long time since he had unleashed his power to his heart's content. The last time he had truly enjoyed using a combination of lightning and wind elements was when he destroyed a giant octopus on the ship.

Since then, the first time I unleashed my power, I encountered an unkillable bald guy; the second time I unleashed my power, I destroyed a boring projection—the feel and experience were extremely poor.

Are there any good targets that I can use to unleash my lightning whirlwind strike? The giant nail in front of me seems pretty good.

Xiao Yi was itching to destroy the giant object; his hands were itching to do so.

The Thunderfire Sorcerer answered his question, but also poured cold water on his enthusiasm.

“No, ordinary attacks can’t break the nails, and a powerful attack…” Mira carefully explained, “could detonate the accumulated energy and blast away most of Liyue.”

"Can't you stop?" Xiao Yi asked.

Ice Fatty said, "This nail was designed with a 'never stop' system installed. Once inserted into the earth's veins, it will run indefinitely, with no stop button or program."

"They're working tirelessly, day and night!" Gan Yu exclaimed, gazing at the sophisticated instruments with deep emotion.

Xiao Yi looked directly into her eyes, his gaze seemingly saying: Miss Gan Yu, don't sympathize with a big nail!

"Could you take me closer to the nail?" he said to the trio. "I want to see it up close and feel the symbol of this divine power."

Perhaps by observing it closely, we can find the nail's weakness and then remove it.

“Of course.” Ice Fatty and Wind Fist said in unison, while Thunderfire Warlock hesitated to speak.

Their plan to deal with Xiao Yi was to lure him near the nail. The elemental power emitted by the nail would attract a large number of monsters. Then, using the equipment prepared by the fat man, Xiao Yi would be attacked by a tidal wave of monsters.

The cylindrical device that Ice Fatty was hiding behind him, shaped like a water glass, was the latest invention of the Fools' Logistics Department. It could attract a large number of monsters in the surrounding area. Originally intended for the Righteous Society, it was stolen along with the man.

The principle is this: when you press the button, the device will emit sound waves that are inaudible to humans, attracting monsters and making them violent and crazy.

They planned to send Xiao Yi to face the monster tide alone, and then take advantage of the chaos to kidnap the lady. Even if he wasn't killed by the monsters, they could use the lady to coerce him into submission.

As long as Narukami-Raygo disappears, the actual rulers of the Society will revert to the trio. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

They immediately led the way for Xiao Yi.

Mira, the lightning sorceress, was deeply conflicted.

She didn't want Xiao Yi and his wife to suffer such a tragedy, but Boris and Hall were her partners. What should she do? Who should she help...?

Contradictory, she followed the crowd, abandoning her own thoughts and deciding to take things one step at a time.

……

The first half of the journey went relatively smoothly. Although the nails attracted a lot of monsters, the monsters' attention was mainly focused on the nails. As long as you moved forward quietly and didn't shoot, you could avoid the monsters and get close to the nails.

They were walking along a narrow path leading to the nail when, before they had gone far, an accident occurred.