I, from the Celestial Empire, have parachuted into Teyvat.

The stone gate was now fully open, revealing the underground passage behind it.

With three or four people and seven or eight tools, the entire process, from start to finish, took less than ten minutes. A massive stone door, nearly a meter thick and over three meters high, and locked by a mechanism, was thus removed...

This move left all the Knights of Favonius, including Jean, completely bewildered.

Chapter 25 Underground Ruins

The main force continued to advance downwards along the passage that appeared after the stone gate was demolished.

The Knights of Favonius were still reeling from the shock they had just experienced, and followed behind in a daze.

Just then, a sliver of light appeared at the end of the dimly lit passage. Xiang Feng, who was at the front, immediately made a hand gesture, and Ivan reminded everyone, "Everyone, stay put and remain alert."

Then, Xiang Feng quietly walked towards the light alone. When he reached the end of the passage, he peeked out and found that the space after the corner had become very open. Looking around, it was clearly an underground city with a huge vertical drop.

To Xiang Feng's surprise, he saw a Hilichurl camp set up at the corner, with seven or eight Hilichurls inside, and the light was coming from there.

After completing the investigation, Xiang Feng returned to his team and reported the entire situation to Ivan.

"Seven or eight Hilichurls..."

Ivan stroked his chin, about to ask Xiang Feng to take a few men to deal with him, when he was interrupted by several squad leaders from the Knights of Favonius who had volunteered to come forward.

The leader was the squad leader who had previously questioned Ivan's inability to open the stone door.

"Commander, let us go. They're just a few Hilichurls. Our Knights haven't done anything since they came in." The squad leaders smiled awkwardly. Clearly, they were shocked by Xiang Feng and his group's lightning-fast dismantling of the stone gate, and they wanted to show off so as not to lose face for the Knights.

Jean turned around and exchanged a glance with Ivan. From each other's eyes, they both understood that they had seen through the captains' thoughts. Jean showed a somewhat helpless expression, while Ivan smiled and said, "In that case, we'll leave it to you."

The squad leader slapped his breastplate loudly: "No problem, we've got your back."

Then, several squad leaders roared, drew their longswords, and rushed toward the light. Ivan and the others immediately followed. When they reached the corner, they found that the squad leaders were already fighting with the Hilichurls.

As captains of the Knights of Favonius squads, they had naturally experienced the baptism of battle. Facing seven or eight Hilichurls, the squad leaders were completely at ease.

Faced with the attack of a Hilichurl wielding a torch and charging wildly, a squad leader remained calm and collected. The instant the Hilichurl was close, his left-hand shield slammed into the opponent's body like a tiger pouncing on its prey. The immense force sent the Hilichurl tumbling over 180 degrees into the air, where it landed face-first on the ground. Then, the squad leader swung his sword with his right hand and, without hesitation, plunged the blade into the Hilichurl's heart, delivering the fatal blow. The Hilichurl instantly dissipated into particles of light and vanished into the air.

On the other side, a Hilichurl wielding a crossbow stood on a high platform in the camp, continuously firing arrows at a squad leader. Despite the lack of obstacles around him, the squad leader, with his agility, dodged all the incoming arrows, several of which even grazed his cheek. Unfazed, the squad leader, while still dodging, reached the foot of the platform, took two leaps, and then, like a gecko, vaulted up the wooden structure, kicking the Hilichurl from the platform into the nearby abyss.

Within minutes, the squad leaders swiftly dealt with all the Hilichurls in the camp and returned unharmed to report back.

"Commander, the camp has been cleared."

Qin nodded in satisfaction: "Thank you all for your hard work."

Ivan also said, "This is troublesome."

Several squad leaders showed excitement and pride on their faces, as if to say, "Look, our Knights Order is quite useful. We're not inferior to the Chinese army."

Ivan noticed this subtle comparison but simply smiled and didn't say anything. However, several squad leaders said enthusiastically, "Mr. Ivan, our Knights of Favonius are all battle-hardened warriors. You can rest assured that you can leave any Hilichurls, monsters, or anything else to us."

Ivan smiled and said, "Okay."

Xiang Feng asked, somewhat puzzled, "Speaking of which, do Hilichurls actually enter ruins?"

Qin said, "The Hilichurls appeared on the Teyvat continent a long time ago, and their origins are still unknown. They are scattered in every corner of the Teyvat continent. Because of the long time that has passed, some Hilichurls have unknowingly wandered into various ancient ruins. Judging from the appearance of this camp, this group of Hilichurls should have been in this underground city ruin for a long time."

After clearing the camp, everyone finally had time to carefully observe the massive underground city ruins.

This is a huge, upright cylindrical underground cave. The ruins of the underground city are embedded in the rock walls on the side of this cylinder. All around are some magical minerals that emit fluorescence, ensuring the lighting of this vast underground space.

The underground city is divided into several levels, one after another, and is shaped like a pyramid. It is enormous. Ivan estimated that the straight-line distance from the bottom to the top of the underground city is at least fifty meters high. At this moment, the group is standing on a small protruding platform at the bottom of the pyramid, next to which is a bottomless abyss. One can imagine what would happen if they fell down.

Looking at the magnificent underground structure before her, Jean couldn't help but sigh, "All the ruins on the Teyvat continent today are those that have survived since the peak of the Kanriel civilization. And to this day, there are still countless ruins on the Teyvat continent that have not been discovered... Just how advanced was the Kanriel civilization back then to be able to create such wonders all over the Teyvat continent?"

Ivan was equally shocked. Seeing this ruin now was somewhat like the shock that Chinese people felt when they first saw ancient artifacts unearthed. It's hard to imagine how people hundreds or thousands of years ago created it.

Such a massive underground project would be absolutely impossible to complete without strong resource support and absolutely reliable engineering capabilities. Kanria truly deserves its reputation as the foremost nation on the continent of Teyvat, a nation that dared to challenge the gods.

However, this also reminded Ivan that once Wendy returned from investigating Dvalin's whereabouts, he should ask him about the Heart of God as soon as possible, since the Ice God's purpose in seizing the Heart of God was very likely related to the truth behind the destruction of the Kingdom of Kanria.

The truth behind the destruction of Canria may be related to the evil forces that are currently threatening Earth and the continent of Teyvat.

This is also a question that Ivan has been thinking about and worrying about.

Chapter 26 Appetizer

Upon entering the underground ruins, the group discovered that the interior space appeared to be much larger than it seemed from the outside, leading them to speculate that the interior extended towards the junction of the building and the rock wall.

This was a huge square space with no obstructions around it. Apart from the main entrance, there were no other entrances or exits. The whole place looked empty, with nothing at all.

Ivan asked in confusion, "Isn't there a staircase leading to the second floor?"

Qin said, "It might be like the previous stone gate, with a mechanism."

Ivan frowned and ordered, "Everyone, spread out and search for paths or mechanisms leading to the upper levels. If you find any clues about the Abyss Order and the Fools, report them immediately. Also, this ruin has existed for hundreds or thousands of years, and it's very likely that many monsters have wandered in. Be careful, and call for backup immediately if you encounter any monsters."

"Yes!"

The group of over eighty people scattered instantly, spreading outwards.

In fact, if Ivan wanted to, he could still use demolition tools to break through the ceiling and go to the next level. There are two reasons why he didn't do so. First, this ruin belongs to the ancient culture of Teyvat and has great historical value. If it can be avoided, it will be better not to damage it. Second, we don't know much about the structure of this building yet. If we rashly break through the ceiling, the building may collapse. Violent demolition is the worst option when we really can't find a way out.

Ivan, Jean, and the others didn't sit idle; they also launched their own investigation.

Ivan walked to the center of the square hall and looked down at the huge pattern carved on the floor, which almost occupied the entire floor of the hall. This pattern had just attracted Ivan's attention, but because it was so huge, Ivan could not see what it was carving.

"Xiang Feng, bring the drone?"

Ivan asked.

Xiang Feng nodded and said, "Understood."

Xiang Feng then took out a small military folding drone from the equipment box and threw it into the air. The drone quickly rose and soon reached the ceiling of the first floor. Under Xiang Feng's remote control, the front camera was adjusted downwards to point at the ground.

The hall on this floor is over four meters high, which is high enough to capture a panoramic view with a drone's wide-angle lens. After several silent shots, a panoramic photo of the patterns on the ground was displayed on the remote control tablet in Xiang Feng's hand.

Ivan took the tablet and glanced at it, then his heart skipped a beat.

The carving on the ground depicts a giant eye, composed of two long, striped bands connected vertically, with a circular dot in the middle serving as the pupil.

Ivan was very familiar with this eye, because he would see it on the floor selection screen every time he went down into the Abyss in Genshin Impact. It was the Eye of the Abyss, symbolizing the power of the Abyss!

At this moment, Jean noticed the commotion on Ivan's side and walked over, asking curiously, "What did you find?"

Just then, Ivan suddenly shouted, "Watch out!"

As soon as Ivan finished speaking, the ceiling above Qintou suddenly cracked open, and a huge hand slammed down from the ceiling.

Just as the hand was about to strike the harp, the harp's Eye of the Wind shone brightly. She instantly drew her longsword and thrust it into the ground. A strong gust of wind pressed down from the sword's tip onto the ground, and the immense force pushed the harp away, causing the giant hand to miss its target and crash heavily onto the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The commotion drew everyone's attention.

"what happened?"

"what happened?"

Everyone quickly gathered around. As the dust settled, a giant robot, four meters tall, with incredibly long arms, four cannons on its back, and mysterious runes flashing on its head, appeared before them.

Upon seeing the robot, many of the Knights of the Order gasped in shock.

"Ruins Guardian..."

Upon seeing the ruins guardian robot, Jean was still shaken. If Ivan hadn't shouted "Watch out!" earlier, she would never have had time to react and dodge that fatal blow.

Faced with this behemoth, Xiang Feng was dumbfounded and couldn't help but utter a vulgar curse: "What the hell is this thing?"

“A Ruin Guardian.” Ivan narrowed his eyes and explained, “It’s a relic left behind by the Kingdom of Kanria. The Kanria people called it a ‘farming machine.’ The Kingdom of Kanria has been gone for many years, and countless Ruin Guardian robots have become ownerless killing machines, wandering aimlessly across the Teyvat continent, attacking any creature they see. I didn’t expect there to be one here.”

Just then, a stone wall suddenly fell down, completely sealing off the only entrance to this floor. By the time everyone noticed, it was too late.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "What's going on? Did we trigger some kind of mechanism?"

"Hehehe, we have been waiting for you all for a long time."

Suddenly, a piercing sound came from the ceiling that had just been broken by the ruins guard. Everyone looked up and saw a short figure floating in mid-air, wearing a mask, a heavy red robe, and having two rabbit-like ears.

Ivan frowned: "An abyss mage who manipulates fire elementals..."

Jean said with a gloomy expression, "The forces of the Abyss have indeed infiltrated Mondstadt."

The Abyss Mage let out two more piercing laughs: "Heh heh, I wonder if this trap we've carefully prepared is satisfactory to everyone?"

"A trap?" Ivan pointed at the ruins guard and scoffed dismissively. "You call this a trap?"

The fact that they were conducting a surprise investigation into the meeting place between the Fatui and the Abyss forces could not be kept secret. Given the Fatui's influence in Mondstadt, they had spies everywhere. Therefore, Ivan and his group did not initially expect to be able to capture anyone from the Abyss Order or the Fatui at this meeting place. This operation was only to buy time to stop the other side before they could completely destroy the evidence.

Unexpectedly, the Abyss Order and the Fools turned the tables on them, preparing to wipe out the Knights and the Chinese search force in one fell swoop.

"Hehe, this is just an appetizer, but you should eat the appetizer first."

As soon as the Abyss Mage finished speaking, the Ruins Guardian suddenly activated and charged towards the crowd.

Meanwhile, in a room somewhere in the ruins, a person completely concealed in a black cloak was sitting in front of a crystal, observing the situation through it. Just then, the Abyss Mage suddenly appeared behind him.

"Heh heh, you haven't left yet?"

A hoarse voice came from within the black cloak: "I will not leave until this is over. This time, the Knights have mobilized the last remaining elite troops in Mondstadt to investigate us. If we can eliminate them here, including their commander Jean, then no one can stop me from taking over the defenses of Mondstadt. As long as I have control of the defenses, Mondstadt will be under my control! As for those few rabble from China, consider them a bonus for the fun of the day."

"Heh heh, once you've captured the defenses of Mondstadt, don't forget what you promised us."

"Hmph, as long as I can take Mondstadt, I will naturally give you half of the land I promised."

"Hehe, I hope you keep your promise."

The person in the black cloak sneered, then looked at the crystal in front of them.

"Next, let's watch the performance."

Chapter 27 Modern Warfare

The four-meter-tall guardian of the ruins pressed down against the ceiling, and the crowd quickly scattered.

After scattering the crowd, the ruins guard suddenly turned around and charged towards the harp on his left, wielding his steel arm.

"Commander Qin!"

As Qin retreated, she shouted, "Everyone, pay attention! Maintain your formation and be mindful of your positions. If there's an opening to attack, don't hesitate!"

No sooner had she finished speaking than the Ruin Guard rushed toward Qin's face, its two large hands whistling through the air. In a flash, Qin once again used the wind elemental power of the Eye of God, using a wind pressure sword to launch herself into the air, dodging the Ruin Guard's double-handed strike that was comparable to the crushing blow of a hydraulic press. Then, she stepped on the Ruin Guard's shoulder and somersaulted onto its back.

The sudden, forceful attack caused the Ruin Guard to momentarily freeze as it stood up. Qin sensed an opportunity and shouted, "Hammer-axeer, attack its feet!"