Ten minutes later, Paimon lay on a rock, staring dizzily at the sky, which made Gensho and Ying look at each other helplessly.

"Paimon, can't you fly too? How come you get airsick?"

Ying gently poked Paimon's cheek and asked in confusion. After trying to pry Ying's fingers off a couple of times without success, Paimon lay down and mumbled sleepily:

"The wind was blowing so fast beside me, and it was still supporting me, so Paimon instinctively tried to adjust his balance. After trying to adjust, he quickly got dizzy..."

"So you were adjusting your body balance then."

Gensho coughed awkwardly. Earlier, while flying in the sky, he had seen Paimon constantly moving and had assumed it was...

"I'm sorry, Yuanxiang, my emergency food has caused you trouble."

Ignoring Paimon's mutterings of "it's not emergency food," Ying smiled apologetically at Genji. He seemed to be in a real hurry and had kindly offered her a ride, but this whole mess happened halfway through, leaving Ying speechless.

"No need to apologize. It's good to stop and look at the scenery here. By the way, Ying, look over there."

Yuanxiang smiled and pointed to the Wangshu Inn in the southwest direction, saying:

"Guess what that place is for?"

"Hmm... an outpost? No, no, let me think about it."

Ying stood on tiptoe, her hand resting on her forehead, gazing at the Wangshu Inn. After a moment of serious thought, she said firmly:

"It's a place for people to rest! There's no village or shop in sight, and it's a border area between two countries. If you opened a shop like this, you could definitely make a lot of money!"

"As expected of a traveler."

Yuanxiang clapped his hands and praised, saying:

"His brain works much better than mine. At first, if someone hadn't told me, I would have thought it was someone's luxury villa... huh?"

"how...."

"Shh~~~"

Before she could finish speaking, Ying saw Gensou suddenly fall silent, looking around with a serious expression as if searching. She couldn't help but ask him curiously, but Gensou interrupted her by shaking his finger. The boy took out 'Cyclone', listened to the sound of the wind, and after three seconds, he seemed to have confirmed something. He left behind the words 'Wait for me here' and then hurriedly ran up the hillside, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Traveler, let's follow along. Maybe we can help Yuanxiang in some way."

At this moment, Paimon swayed and landed on Ying's shoulder. Ying nodded, and a longsword appeared out of thin air behind her. As she ran in the direction Gensou had left, she casually drew the sword.

Upon climbing the hillside and looking down, Ying discovered that the area below was an abandoned village, with numerous mine shafts and large pieces of equipment still visible. It seemed that this place had once been extremely bustling, but now it had become a Hilichurl camp.

Wait a minute, something seems off about these Hilichurls.

Ying looked at the Hilichurls that had already been defeated by Gensou. The masks on these Hilichurls seemed to have grown onto their faces and become part of their bodies. The graffiti that served as patterns had actually become facial features. The fangs that protruded directly from their lips were chilling. The Hilichurls' limbs had also become somewhat distorted, as if they were moving with inhuman steps, causing their joints to be severely twisted.

"Traveler... Paimon is a little scared... Something's not right here..."

At this moment, Paimon was no longer dizzy. She hugged Ying's arm in fear and whispered something. Ying gently patted her little head to comfort her, and then got up to chase after Gensou's voice.

However, this time, after Ying took more than ten steps, the world suddenly changed. The sky, which was bright and clear just a second ago, became gloomy and terrifying, creating an atmosphere like a horror movie. After realizing this, Ying couldn't help but grip her long sword tightly and tentatively took a step back. Sure enough, the sky was clear and blue, but this small area was the problem!

"Paimon, stay close to me, something's definitely happened here!"

With a solemn expression, Ying rushed in without hesitation. Even if she couldn't resolve the strange phenomena here, she had to at least ensure Yuanxiang's safe evacuation!

......

"One customer, two customers..."

"Hey Walnut, what are you muttering about?"

At the heart of this strange phenomenon, Hu Tao and Yan Fei, who had met briefly at the Wangshu Inn, each wielded different weapons—one a gun, the other a magical scroll—summoning blazing fire to banish the darkness. However, the sight of the densely packed, zombie-like demons and wandering evil spirits filled them with despair. In this tense moment, Yan Fei heard Hu Tao muttering to herself behind her and couldn't help but ask:

"Have you found a way to get out of this predicament?"

"No, this hall master simply..."

Walnut looked at the drifting, attacking evil spirit and chuckled as she said:

"Yin and Yang are in balance; I, the master of this hall, will now send them into the cycle of reincarnation!"

"My dear Master Walnut, are you sure we shouldn't go down first?"

Yan Fei waved her arms, and balls of flame flew from her hands, annihilating the attacking demons. She then pressed down sharply, and flames resembling magic seals descended from the sky, blasting away all the remaining enemies. This finally bought her a little breathing space, but it still couldn't change the situation. Yan Fei could feel her hands and feet starting to get cold, a sign of exhaustion, which made her mood worse.

"So what if we go down? Birth, aging, sickness, and death are things everyone has to go through sooner or later. We'll just go a little earlier."

Okay, I feel even worse now.

Yan Fei sighed deeply in her heart. "Tell me, this was originally just a spur-of-the-moment decision to investigate an old case. It's not like I've never done this before. How did I end up encountering such a strange thing?"

"Cheer up, they're coming up again!"

Hu Tao's sudden shout roused Yan Fei. Seeing the demons and evil spirits that seemed unable to contain their ferocity and about to devour them, the two girls held their breath and prepared to face the impending onslaught.

At that moment, Yanfei and Hutao felt a breeze blowing from behind them. The breeze was different from the eerie and chilling atmosphere here; it was warm and gentle, like the kind embrace of an elder at home.

But after the wind left them, it became incredibly fierce, mercilessly and brutally sweeping all the surrounding enemies into the air and gathering them together. Then, a powerful "thud" exploded behind them, and they saw the emerald green drill, like lightning, pierce through the monsters in the blink of an eye, and the violent wind turned them all into dust.

After the dust settled, the green Kamen Rider somersaulted down, landing steadily in front of Kurumi and Yanfei. With a wave of his hand, he sent the dust away, preventing it from falling on the two children, and asked:

"Are you alright? What happened here?"

"Source...Hometown?"

"Aww~~ I didn't expect Gensou to be so amazing. You truly deserve to be called a senior from the beginning of Liyue."

While Yan Fei was still in shock, Hu Tao tucked the gun behind her back, laughed, and pounced on her, patting the green armor as she said:

"For the sake of you saving my life... Waaaaah..."

Yanfei knew exactly what Hu Tao was going to say, and without saying a word, she went up and covered her mouth, then looked at Yuanxiang and said:

"Thank you so much for saving me, senior! Yanfei... ah!"

Suddenly, Yanfei saw evil spirits appear behind Yuanxiang again, and it seemed that there were also the 'old acquaintances' who had just attacked them, which greatly surprised her.

“If you take the right approach to dealing with evil spirits, they can disappear in an instant, but if you take the wrong approach, they can be very difficult to deal with.”

At this moment, Hu Tao pried Yan Fei's hand away and said in an old-fashioned tone, just as Yan Fei was about to urge her, the head of the Rebirth Hall looked at Yuan Xiang with a smile and said:

"However, it's not so troublesome for the old senior. Even after a thousand years, I believe the killing intent on the old senior's body can break through all laws with sheer force and easily eliminate them."

This kid has a big mouth.

Not only did Yanfei want to urge her, but Yuanxiang also wanted her to directly explain the method, but since it was said to be murderous intent...

'Joker'

Gengo skillfully took out the black memory and pressed it. Black fragments replaced the green 'Gale'. The moment Kamen Rider Joker completed his transformation, a purple-black shockwave suddenly erupted. The two little girls standing behind Gengo couldn't help but gasp and took several steps back before barely regaining their balance. The evil spirits vanished in the shockwave. Under this eerie and terrifying celestial phenomenon, the Kamen Rider seemed to have become the god of death who created all of this.

However, Hu Tao and Yan Fei were not frightened at all. On the contrary, their eyes widened immediately. After exchanging a glance and confirming that they hadn't misheard, they exclaimed in unison:

"Jiuka?!" X2

"What's wrong... what's going on with you guys?"

Hearing the noise behind him, Yuanxiang turned around in confusion, only to see the two little girls staring intently at him. How to describe it? It was like you wanted a piece of gold, and in the blink of an eye, a mountain of gold fell on your head. Yuanxiang couldn't help but take a half step back. In that instant, he felt that those evil spirits from before seemed much cuter than them.

"A little box that makes sounds on its own..."

Hu Tao looked at the memory device on Yuan Xiang's waist and muttered to herself.

"A full-body, jet-black battle armor that can dress itself..."

Yanfei stroked her chin, examining Yuanxiang's body, and murmured thoughtfully.

"What a blunder! I should have guessed it when I saw the reaction of the Great Sage Subduing Demons."

"Yes, Grandma Mingping told me about it...etc."

Yan Fei suddenly realized something and looked at Hu Tao in surprise, saying:

"You know Lord Yaksha?"

"How come I didn't know?"

Hu Tao playfully stuck her tongue out at Yan Fei:

"I know a lot of things, it's just a matter of whether it's convenient to talk about them."

Then you still have to go up and poke it...

Yan Fei, who wanted to make such a sarcastic remark, looked at Hu Tao, who was now clinging to Yuan Xiang, and silently swallowed her words. This guy... really disrespectful to the Immortal Master!

"Please calm down. What's going on? Your sudden enthusiasm is making me a little uncomfortable."

Yuanxiang stopped Yanfei from trying to peel Hutao off him, and said with a black line on his face, while Hutao said confidently:

"Then you'd better get used to it quickly, senior. You were quite famous in Liyue Harbor. Most of the children have heard your stories."

"Yeah yeah."

Yan Fei echoed:

"Now almost every household in Liyue uses a small statue modeled after you to ward off evil spirits."

"What the heck?! Me? A house-protecting charm?!"

Yuanxiang was deeply shocked, while Hu Tao and Yan Fei chattered on, telling the person involved their past stories.

During the war between demons and gods a thousand years ago, every place on this continent was engulfed in flames of war. The war not only took place between demons and gods, but also by countless evil creatures attempting to take advantage of the chaos to expand their territory.

One of the monsters particularly annoyed the Rock King Emperor, who was not yet one of the Seven Gods.

These monsters come from the deep sea, have soft skin and scales, dexterous arms and legs, can survive having their limbs severed, and can even spit out a sticky, wet liquid…

While the above characteristics are disgusting enough, they are not the main point. The main point is that they are very "small" and seem to be everywhere: tables and chairs, door cracks and window slats, curtain folds, and even teacups, books and pen holders.

Back then, people could easily reach out and touch something cold, sticky, and wet; these monsters would creep up the back of their hands, leaving a glistening trail in their wake...

At the request of the ancestors of Liyue, the Geo Archon promised to eliminate these monsters. However, the Archon would never treat monsters that parasitize human society as he would on the battlefield, hurling countless stone spears and shattering the earth along with them.

At this time, the black-armored knight took on the task. Day and night, tirelessly, he dragged these monsters out of countless houses one by one, and also drove away other unclean things from the people's side, so that the people of Liyue could enjoy peaceful sleep without worrying about evil spirits beside them when they woke up.

To express their gratitude for his contributions and to prevent the story of this hero from being forgotten along with his name, the ancient people of Liyue recorded the remaining fragments of his deeds in their memories through songs, scripts, and other means. The small statue that guards the house is derived from the story mentioned above.

However, it is said that after the long extermination battle, the black-armored warrior seemed to have been left with a considerable psychological trauma. Even though he lived in a port city, he kept his distance from all living, wriggling aquatic creatures. This caused a great headache for the people of Liyue who sold seafood. They could only smear honey on the statue's mouth and nose, hoping that the statue would continue to protect their homes and families.

192 Zhongli arrives

"Wait, why smear sugar on your mouth and nose? Is there any special meaning behind it?"

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