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

After the song "Winter Flower" was finished, the sturdy carriage was almost falling apart. Even the composed Yae no Miko could hardly withstand it and was nearly shaken out of her original form by Miyamoto's driving skills.

"Big brother, that's dangerous driving!" Xiao Yi accused, then checked on Ya Chong, "Fox, are you alright? Can you breathe? Do you need artificial respiration?"

Yae, the fox, knelt on the floor of the carriage, burying her face in the seat, her furry ears twitching. Although she was a fox with considerable experience, she had never personally experienced a roller coaster, let alone a roller coaster that doubled as a bumper car.

The pink-haired woman struggled to her feet, grumbling, "This is terrible. If I had known my driving skills were this bad, I would have transformed into a fox and gone to tread the sand myself."

"I almost forgot, your true form isn't like this," Xiao Yi said excitedly. "I'm very curious, Miss Yae, when will you have time to show me?"

"Want to see?" Yae no Miko returned to her seat, crossed her legs, and raised her eyebrows.

Xiao Yi nodded frequently.

"Dream on!" Yae refused mercilessly.

After his elder brother's commotion, Xiao Yi's distracting thoughts were cleared up, but doubts remained—who exactly was that guy who called himself "this humble one"?

I'm certain I've reduced it to ashes, so there's no need to worry about it retaliating. Logically, this journey should be smooth sailing, and none of me, my elder brother, or the divine child should be injured or killed. Three people, six legs to go and six legs to come back.

He suddenly remembered something that had been bothering him for a long time, but he had forgotten about it because of all the things that had happened recently.

Xiao Yi reached into his clothes and took out the map he had found. It was this map that Zhan Kuang used to escape, circling around Tabusha before being completely annihilated.

Xiao Yi didn't understand the reason, but guessed that the evil spirit was performing some kind of ritual. Now there just happened to be a fox in the whole village who knew the most about rituals, so she could decipher the secrets of the map.

Yae no Miko took the map covered in notes, studied it for a moment, then frowned slightly, her playful expression vanishing, replaced by a rare seriousness.

She had been dangling her crossed legs, her toes twirling her shoes, but after discovering the truth about the map, she actually threw her shoes off, which speaks volumes about how shocking the content was.

"We've found the reason for the eruption of the evil spirit's resentment," Yae analyzed, pursing her lips.

The pink-haired fox stepped on the fallen shoe, came to the opposite side and sat down next to Xiao Yi. She spread the map on Xiao Yi's lap, gesturing with her hands while explaining.

"Here, here, here, when connected, they form a triangle; here, here, when connected, they form a parallelogram; and here... When all the patterns are superimposed, they form an extremely complex magic circle, a wondrous spell combining Liyue's Sage Art and Inazuma's Onmyo Art."

"It is the evil spirit's resentment that it brought about."

Xiao Yi stared at the map, his pupils gradually shrinking.

He finally understood the great cause that the monster had mentioned, and how it would be accomplished. The monster had either hypnotized or instigated the war maniacs in other ways, first with a suicide attack and then with a prescribed escape route, in order to meet the fate of being wiped out by the punitive expeditionary force.

However, their blood and souls have stained a huge magic circle located between the islands of Hachi-yū and Naru-gami, where the remains of the evil serpent are situated, thus facilitating the eruption of the evil serpent's resentment.

What the evil spirit needs is not living battle maniacs, but to kill them all in a fixed way, just as the old saying goes, sometimes the dead are more useful than the living.

"Were we all just pawns?" Xiao Yi said through gritted teeth. "Tch, it's really infuriating, but I've already killed it and taken my revenge."

Xiao Yi put the map away and found that the fox's expression had returned to its usual relaxed and cheerful state.

Yae no longer sat down next to him, but got up and returned to his original position, explaining, "There's no need to worry for now. The guy who set up this array overlooked a certain area, which is a particularly difficult-to-find key point. If that area is lit, the giant serpent might even come back to life."

"It doesn't matter if the giant snake is resurrected." Xiao Yi wasn't worried. "At worst, my godfather can just strike it again."

"You think it's as simple as just making one more slash?" Yae no Miko leaned forward, bringing her face close to Xiao Yi's. "The formation is connected to the earth's veins. At that time, it won't just be Inazuma's vengeful spirit that erupts; the resentment of demons from other countries will also be drawn in..."

"Inazuma is not the only country plagued by the grudges of demons. If the people of those countries find that all the troublesome pollutants are being transferred to remote islands, what will they think? They will definitely celebrate instead of helping us."

Xiao Yi was speechless. He blinked, and the pink-furred fox withdrew its outstretched body.

"Is there any way to solve this?" Xiao Yi asked.

“Although the magic circle is drawn, it still needs a caster to activate it. If the caster dies, the magic circle will lose its effect,” Yae no Miko replied. “However, when that time comes, we won’t have a chance to find the caster, unless we indiscriminately bomb Inazuma.”

"By the way, once the most important eye of the magic array is hit, even if Shenying recovers her health, it will be of no use. At that time, Shenying can only delay the disaster."

Xiao Yi sensed something was wrong.

He has eliminated the evil spirit, but the evil magic circle is still running automatically, proving that the mastermind behind it is still alive.

"In that case, I think we should prioritize protecting the array's core rather than refining elixirs," Xiao Yi earnestly suggested.

“No, the elixir is more important,” Yae no Miko denied. “As long as the Divine Cherry obtains the antibody, it can automatically clear the previous magic array. I don’t believe that potential enemies can find hundreds of living sacrifices to break through the array’s core before we return.”

Xiao Yi handed the map to the fox again: "To be on the safe side, tell me the location of the array's core first, so we can respond promptly if anything happens."

Yae no Miko reached out to the map, intending to point out the location of the array's core to Xiao Yi, but the carriage suddenly shook violently, and when she pressed her finger harder, a hole appeared in the fragile map.

"Brother, what happened?" Xiao Yi asked hurriedly.

This tremor was very abnormal. It didn't seem like the eldest brother wanted to sing another racing hit song. It was more like something had fallen onto the top of the carriage, affecting the balance of the moving carriage.

Several well-trained military horses neighed wildly, as if they were terrified of something unknown.

Through the small window, one could see that Miyamoto Jiro, who was in charge of driving, had actually drawn his nodachi (a type of katana), and at the same time, he loudly reminded Xiao Yi: "Use your weapon to stab the roof of the car!"

Trusting his elder brother, Xiao Yi immediately did as he was told. The cheap knife pierced through the roof of the carriage, and accompanied by a howl like that of a wild beast, something unidentified fell from the roof to the ground.

Xiao Yi observed the longsword, which was covered with a black liquid that slowly evaporated into miasma and dissipated.

"What happened?" he asked Miyamoto.

"Xiao Jun, have you ever heard the saying, 'Sometimes the dead are more useful than the living'? We've been attacked by the dead, and quite a few of them!"

Chapter 67 The Unstable Sakura Sesshomaru

Xiao Yi initially didn't believe his elder brother's warning.

This isn't Resident Evil, a zombie apocalypse, The Walking Dead, or Dying Light; it's the beautiful, harmonious, peaceful, and healthy continent of Teyvat. Before I transmigrated here, I'd never heard of any necromancy or dark magic...

But when he leaned out the window, he saw a bizarre scene: several pale-skinned humanoid creatures twisted their limbs, carrying weapons and chasing after the carriage. Their eyes gleamed with an extremely eerie light, and they were just short of shouting "FusRoDah" (Unyielding Power).

"What kind of creatures are these?" he asked the fox next to him.

“In short, they are not human beings.” Yae no Miko asked doubtfully, “Corpses driven by the curse of the evil god? No, their souls are still in their bodies, but they have no life force.”

……

Twenty minutes ago.

whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—

The creature, entirely black, stood on high ground, watching the carriage approaching along the mountain road. Because of the distance, the carriage looked like a tiny dot, and with the cover of night, it was practically invisible. Yet, it kept its eyes fixed on the carriage and never lost sight of it.

More than fifty people were kneeling behind the evil spirit; they were all surviving members of the War Frenzy.

These people had no other merits except for their exceptionally fast escape speed, which allowed them to barely survive the relentless attacks of the punitive expeditionary force.

These homeless thugs, who were originally trying to survive in the wilderness under the guidance of the fat man Koji Tadokoro, accidentally saw a tsunami climbing a mountain to a high point for observation. Their brainwashed minds relapsed, and they involuntarily followed it to the top of the mountain.

The evil spirit didn't care.

The plan is more than halfway complete, and we no longer need these scumbags. If they don't bother us, we'll let them follow; if they do, we'll eliminate them.

The problem is that this carriage is behaving strangely, swaying as if in some kind of rhythm, and it's heading towards Tasha late at night. Don't they know that there's been a war going on here recently, and that there are many bandits and the security is extremely bad?

This was no ordinary shogunate carriage; it was carrying at least some important mission.

However, Sui didn't have time to pay attention to the vehicle. It wanted to go to the core of the Shadow Furnace to confirm something, and that's when the followers had to play their role.

Chong turned to his idle followers and commanded, "Go to the road that the carriage must take, hold hands and use your bodies to stop it from moving forward."

The worshippers were immediately stunned; wasn't this a death sentence?!

Brainwashing is effective, but it is different from mind control. The recent charge against the extermination team was out of worship and trust in the evil spirit, believing that it could lead everyone to break through the encirclement. However, this trust came from mental suggestion, and everyone still retained their ability to think.

whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—

The war fanatics trembled, but did not move an inch.

The evil spirit walked past the fifty-odd people without killing them, and simply headed down the mountain.

A deep, muffled voice said, "You should all leave now; you're no longer of any use to me."

But it hadn't taken more than a few steps when its heavy breathing suddenly stopped, and the dark figure knelt on the ground, as if a person suffering from a respiratory disease had suddenly fallen ill.

At first, the war fanatics dared not approach and remained kneeling. Later, some of them boldly stood up, until finally a dark-skinned fat man rushed out from the crowd. He had a fiery red eye of God hanging from his waist and a rough, huge cleaver in his hand.

"The Ten Elders may be a bunch of annoying guys, but they genuinely want to start a war," Tadokoro Koji said angrily. "You just want to destroy the War Maniacs and use us for some unknown purpose. Damn it, I will destroy you on behalf of the War Maniacs!"

Summoning his courage, Tadokoro charged toward the kneeling, motionless Tae. He planned to use the large steel sword to cut off Tae's head, then rebuild the shattered organization, recruit wandering samurai and others who yearned for war, and revive the war fanaticism.

The moment Tadokoro raised his knife, Sumeru suddenly lunged and grabbed his neck. A blinding red current flashed at a high frequency. After the light dissipated, Tadokoro was thrown to the ground, and Sumeru's breathing resumed and returned to its usual rhythm.

whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—

"Alright, I admit you're not entirely useless. Your life force is quite adequate as food to sustain my activities." Chong looked at the withered fat man. "Thanks to him, I've come up with a new way to reuse your waste."

As for the fat man who had been drained, his skin was pale and his muscles were shrunken, making him look like a living dead.

Immediately afterwards, Koji Tadokoro's "corpse" slowly stood up, his hands, like withered branches, still gripping the large cleaver, and his empty eyes shining with an unsettling light.

"I have absorbed your life force, but not your soul, so you can still move," the evil spirit said slowly. "I have replaced your life force with the power of the evil spirit, so your body is no longer suffering from the pain of flesh and blood, and you can move as you please."

"If you disobey my will, I will confiscate your power and your life."

As Koji Tadokoro observes his reborn self in shock, Tsui slowly turns around and looks at the Berserker members, who are filled with either fear or anticipation.

"It's your turn."

……

Under attack from the ghouls, Xiao Yi held the carriage entrance tightly, fearing that something might suddenly break in. As a mage, the Eightfold Divine Child would not be able to handle it, and the narrow space would easily cause accidental injury.

Just then, with a loud and mournful neigh of a horse, the entire vehicle suddenly slowed down.

"Big brother, what happened?"

"There are quite a few similar guys blocking the road ahead," Miyajiro explained. "If you try to ram them, the car will overturn!"

If long-range attacks are used indiscriminately, it may damage the road and affect progress. Just as Xiao Yi was struggling with this, Yae no Miko calmly spoke up.

"Charge through! I have a way to clear the path of the undead at the same time without damaging the road—the Law!"

She calmly waved her hand from her seat, a purple light flashed, and a fox-shaped totem named Sesshomaru appeared on the roof of the car, creating a chilling atmosphere.

Xiao Yi breathed a sigh of relief.

Sakura Sesshomaru can target individuals with a small range that won't affect road conditions, making her a perfect match for this situation.

Ding! Sesshomaru glows.

A bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, hitting the tree next to the corpse demon blocking the way with perfect accuracy.

“My Lord God…” Xiao Yi said speechlessly.

Yae no Miko maintained a calm smile and said, "No need to worry, I have a backup plan."