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

If you attack the unarmed, thin man, the two chain blades will still be affected by inertia and cause a fatal wound to Ying. If you take the blow for Ying instead of attacking the enemy, you will not be able to use Time Stop again for another three minutes, and there is no guarantee that nothing will happen during that time.

How to choose...?

The enemy must be defeated, and the girl must be saved—Xiao Yi is prepared!

He threw out two wooden sticks, which spun towards the blade that was about to pin Ying to the desolate star. Then, Xiao Yi charged forward recklessly towards the emaciated enemy.

Time stop ends.

Ding ding!!

The wooden stick collided with the side of the knife, deflecting the attack. The two chain blades grazed past Ying and embedded themselves in the solid surface of the desolate planet behind her.

Xiao Yi lunged at the enemy. If he had a weapon, the battle would be over by now. But he was empty-handed and could only rely on the most basic human problem-solving method—his fists—to strike the man's cheek with all his might, trying to knock him down.

The wind-enhanced punch collided with the enemy's head, the sound of flesh exploding echoing along the edge of the forest.

Bang! ! !

However, the enemy only retreated a few steps, without even a hint of falling, and regained his footing in less than a second.

Xiao Yi felt as if his fists were striking a large rock, not the frail man who looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind. It was as if the person in front of him was no longer a weak, skinny man, but the original owner of these rough twin swords fighting against him.

Could it be that the chain blade, besides its ice and fire elements, has other functions that support the enemy?

Without giving Xiao Yi much time to think, seeing the opponent dragging the chain to retrieve the weapon, Xiao Yi hurriedly amplified his speed with wind element and jumped back to create distance to avoid being attacked.

He landed next to Ying, and just then, an even faster attack slashed across from him.

The two crouched down to dodge, and the crossed blades actually sliced ​​the desolate star behind them in two, proving that their power was extraordinary.

"Haha, is that all you've got?" The gaunt man sheathed his weapon and sneered. "You don't seem as powerful as I thought. How did you get such a high 'justice score'? It can't be that 'that person' set the data incorrectly, right?"

Justice value?

"It seems very difficult to capture him alive, and I can't hold back my strength any longer," Ying explained to her companion. "If I don't go all out, I might get injured."

“Getting injured, getting injured doesn’t seem so bad.” Xiao Yi had an idea and said softly and quickly, “You just need to do this first… then this… and finally this…”

"What are you two whispering about?!" The gaunt man suddenly swung out his twin swords.

With the ice blade in front and the fire blade behind, enchant it with ice and then let the fire trigger the elemental reaction to achieve the best power.

Both weapons were aimed at the traveler girl. The skinny man thought that the blonde girl was more threatening than Xiao Yi, who was unarmed, and that it would be best to take her out first.

Ying's mind was still processing Xiao Yi's crazy plan, and she couldn't react to the attacking twin blades immediately. Xiao Yi immediately flashed in front of his companion to block them.

Bang! ! !

Despite creating a barrier of wind in front of him, the ice blade still pierced through the gale, stabbing into Xiao Yi's abdomen and stopping its advance.

Xiao Yi knelt on the ground.

Ying was surprised by her companion's act of sacrificing herself to shield him from the knife, but she had no time to reflect on it. She stepped on Xiao Yi's shoulder and used it as a platform to leap forward.

She unleashed three lightning bolts with her sword, which clashed with the fire blade that followed.

The overload reaction produced a violent explosion, deflecting the fire blade's original attack direction. The heavy weapon grazed past Xiao Yi's ear as he knelt down.

Yingluo landed in front of the gaunt man, giving him no further chance, and plunged her bladeless sword into his chest.

"Wind Blade!"

The gale sent the enemy flying like a rag doll, spinning until he crashed into a large tree.

“I’ve stopped fighting. The enemy can’t continue, but they can still answer our questions.” Ying looked at her companion with concern. “Xiao Yi, how are you—don’t touch the weapon that’s in your wound!”

She noticed that Xiao Yi was trying to pull out the knife, and she was surprised and immediately stopped him. Although the weapon's ice element had frozen the wound, so there was no need to worry about bleeding for the time being, moving the weapon inside the body could still damage the internal organs.

On the other side, the skinny man's weak voice could be heard.

"Cough cough cough... Hehehehehe... Although it's only 35 points, my luck is pretty good!" He slowly got up, clutching his stomach, and pulled out the fire sword that had been blown away by the overload reaction and landed under the big tree. "I can't continue to do my duty. 'That person,' long live justice!"

The skinny man slashed half of his throat with a knife—he chose to commit suicide to avoid revealing information.

"Don't even think about dying!" Xiao Yi stood up, pulled out the ice chain knife from his abdomen, and hurled it at the enemy.

The ice blade knocked the fire sword out of the skinny man's hand, causing an elemental reaction that made him fall to the ground in the mud. At the same time, Xiao Yi, who was seriously injured, ran wildly toward the enemy.

"The protection of the deep sea!"

(Lord: Coral Palace Heart Sea; Trust Value: 86)

He activated his inner power to heal his abdominal wound, rushed to the fallen skinny man, and used the last two seconds to heal him to the point of being severely injured but not fatal.

"As expected of Haiqi Island's super healer, the effect is outstanding," Xiao Yi exclaimed.

"You, you..." The arrogant skinny man stammered incoherently.

"What do you mean, 'you'? You've eaten shit!" Xiao Yi kicked the other person in the head, causing him to be briefly dizzy.

Two minutes later.

The enemy was bound to a tree by the chains of the ice blade, and was delirious. Xiao Yi and Ying squatted not far away, observing the other piece of equipment that the skinny guy had dropped—a rough fire knife.

The moment Xiao Yi picked up the weapon, a surge of power entered his body, and as time passed, the amplification of this power gradually increased.

No wonder skinny people can exert superhuman strength that doesn't match their body size, and they become increasingly difficult to deal with as the game progresses.

He told Ying about his experience.

“The dual swords might be… relics,” Ying analyzed. “The enemy dug them out of the ley lines.”

Relics?! Xiao Yi was shocked to hear such a term.

The well-informed traveler explained, "Weapons like these, which have accompanied their users for many years, embody various emotions, bonds, dreams, and longings... and are therefore endowed with unique power, capable of giving the user a powerful boost."

"The ley lines have the function of recording the past. The other party spent 10 unknown points to extract these two weapons from the ley lines and obtained the power of the weapon's owner in his lifetime, which is why we are having such a difficult time fighting them."

Xiao Yi continued the girl's words and analyzed, "When he first obtained the weapon, he marveled at his luck, which shows that obtaining weapons from the ley lines is completely random. If he had gotten a cheap, blunt sword at the beginning, we probably wouldn't have been in such a predicament."

The reason why Xiao Yi and Ying fought so hard was partly because they wanted to capture the thin man alive to limit his power.

It's quite amazing, really. Retrieving things from ley lines is never an easy task, yet the mastermind behind it all accomplished this, endowing his minions with special abilities and even planting lottery data in the Liyue people's heads through the dense fog.

What exactly is that guy trying to do?

It's alright, we've already obtained living evidence. With a little questioning, at least five out of ten questions can be answered.

Xiao Yi continued to play with and observe the fire knife. The man with pointed ears and monkey cheeks, who was tied to the tree, gradually woke up and began to hurl insults at him and the traveler.

“He just tried to kill himself,” Ying said warily. “Be careful, he might bite his tongue and die.”

Xiao Yi gently shook his head: "It's alright, my 'Sea of ​​Hearts' has cooled down, I can just treat it again if necessary."

The actual cause of death from biting one's tongue to commit suicide is suffocation and excessive blood loss, which would take at least a few minutes. With the healing effects of the Heart Sea Jellyfish, even if the other party is exceptionally gifted and flexible enough to bite off his own neck, Xiao Yi has a way to save him on the spot.

Moreover, doing so can also break down the other party's psychological defenses, making them realize that even death is not in their own control, thus causing them to break down and making the interrogation easier.

"Seven days from now, if they find I haven't returned, the assassins will come to the area where I disappeared to investigate. You can defeat me, but you can't defeat them!" Even though he was chained to a tree, the skinny man still didn't forget to shout.

Hearing the enemy's blatant threat, Xiao Yi and Ying were secretly delighted. Perhaps the skinny guy didn't know enough. In seven days, someone else would come to deliver intelligence. They were overjoyed.

As he continued shouting, the skinny man started saying strange things again.

"I possess the 'fangs' bestowed upon me by 'that person,' and I will not reveal any information to you!" he roared maniacally. "For the future of 'justice' in Liyue, for Teyvat to be shrouded in beautiful 'justice,' I will take my leave first, hehehehehe..."

The laughter then abruptly stopped.

Xiao Yi suddenly sensed something was wrong. The fire blade in his hand became lighter and eventually turned into dust, drifting to the ground and merging with the earth as if returning to the earth's veins.

At the same time, the ice blades and chains binding the skinny man disappeared, and he fell to the ground, motionless.

Xiao Yi immediately rushed to the side of the skinny man who had fallen down, pulled him up, and found that he was bleeding from all seven orifices and had no breath.

Xiao Yi and Ying looked at each other, puzzled. How could someone who was bound hand and foot commit suicide in a few seconds, without even being noticed by bystanders less than ten meters away?

In short, the trail went cold.

"What happened?" Gan Yu ran over anxiously, with white floating objects flying behind her.

A few minutes ago, the aftershocks of the battle were detected at the edge of the barrier, and Gan Yu, who had been sleeping, immediately awoke and ran towards the location of the battle.

"Whoa!!!" Paimon saw the corpse, covered his eyes, and flew behind Gan Yu.

"The guy who died was someone who knew the truth, or more accurately, a henchman of the mastermind," Xiao Yi explained simply. "He could draw relics from the ley lines by consuming the numbers above his head. After we defeated him and tied him up, he somehow committed suicide."

Gan Yu leaned closer to observe, pondered for a moment, and said, "I think I recognize him. His name is Zhang San. He used to be an unemployed vagrant in Liyue Harbor, a lazy person who lived day to day. Because he couldn't earn money, he spent his days shouting in the streets about the injustice of Liyue and the treachery of the Seven Stars..."

Someone like this probably doesn't know any important figures; it's likely that "that important person" actively sought out Zhang San. In that case, the mastermind behind it all must be quite strapped for cash, even taking in someone like this—they must genuinely lack capable people.

“But…you said you defeated him and tied him up, so how did he commit suicide?” Paimon asked, covering his eyes.

“He just mentioned ‘teeth’…” Xiao Yi suddenly remembered something, pried open the thin man’s mouth which was not yet stiff, shoved his hand in and pulled hard.

With an unpleasant "click," he pulled out a bloody tooth. Upon closer inspection, a noticeable crack could be seen in the groove of the molar.

"I see!" Xiao Yi's pupils contracted as he judged, "Precise Inazuma craftsmanship."

"What is this?" Ying asked.

"Besides festivals and cultural activities, the guild also oversees the final ninja organization. Ayaka's brother showed me around the secrets of the ninjas and explained the history of ninja tools to me." Xiao Yi suddenly changed the subject, "In ancient Inazuma, to prevent ninjas from being tortured and revealing secrets to the enemy after being captured, they would have special dentures fitted before going on missions..."

"Could it be!" The other three suddenly realized.

"The dentures contain a deadly poison. If the tongue touches a special mechanism and the victim bites down hard, the poison will spread rapidly, causing the captured ninja to die with a secret." Xiao Yi stared at the bloodstained dentures in his hand, lost in thought.

“How cruel!” Paimon commented.

“This kind of thing is no longer used, and even the final ninjas rarely know about it.” Xiao Yi said with a furrowed brow. “That’s why I was quite surprised to see it in Liyue.”

According to Gan Yu's description, Zhang San was a native of Liyue Harbor and it was impossible for him to make a tool that even active ninjas didn't know much about. Moreover, he said before he died that "Fang" was a gift given to him by "that person".

How could such a shameless scoundrel willingly commit suicide for the organization? Who is the mastermind behind this?

“At least we have a clue, through this thing.” Xiao Yi threw the tooth back into Zhang San’s mouth and then helped him close his mouth again. “The culprit who caused all this is very likely Inazuma, or at least has a connection with Inazuma.”

Otherwise, such ninja tools could never have been created.

"What should we do next?" Gan Yu asked.

“Simple, just wait for them to come to us.” Xiao Yi stood up and said without hesitation, “Zhang San said that assassins would come to him in seven days. We’ll just wait for them to come, grab one of them at random and ask for information—I don’t believe that everyone will have time to kill themselves.”

Chapter 114 Deception System: The New Lord, Ying

The next day, Xiao Yi, Gan Yu, Ying, and Paimon discussed the plan and finalized the action plan.