Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 168 Saving the Grass Dragon King Apep

After finishing her trip to Fontaine, Kiana first returned to Liyue, mainly to let Bella, who was staying at home, know that she was safe.

It must be said that Bella is becoming more and more skilled at housework, but even so, it will be difficult for Kiana to take Bella with her in the upcoming plans.

So, in order to comfort Bella, who was somewhat discouraged, Kiana had to stay with Bella for a while, and she also needed to check on the Yasha's recovery progress.

The good news is that the Yakshas are recovering well and are expected to be fully recovered by the next Lantern Festival. The bad news is that Xiao discovered the resurrection of the Yakshas, ​​so he missed out on a surprise. Apart from Fushe, the other Yakshas were cared for by both Xiao and Fushe.

After dealing with matters in Liyue, Kiana and Bella went to Sumeru together. Perhaps because the others learned about the original future development through the group chat, even without Kong's help in the coup, the Sumeru group quickly became friends with Kong and Paimon.

Originally, everyone planned to prepare a surprise for Naxida during the Flower Goddess's birthday festival to make up for the years of mistreatment that Sumeru had given her. However, now that Sumeru's grass gods include not only the Little Auspicious Grass King but also the Great Compassion Tree King, everyone's little schemes were immediately seen through by Buyer.

However, Buyer said she would keep this surprise a secret, but in return, she wanted to join in.

After all, she wanted to make some compensation to Nasita, but this was just a side story.

The main reason why Buyer found everyone was to look for Kong, because she had just finally found out the location of the [Fire Seed].

In order to resolve Apep's problem as soon as possible, Buyer needs someone with the ability to purify the abyss to come and help.

As for why they didn't look for Kiana, it was mainly because distant water couldn't quench a nearby fire. Buyer learned from Sora that Kiana had already set off for Nata and Fontaine.

It seems that the plan is about to begin, and when we meet again, Kiana will probably be the one to inherit the throne.

Therefore, Buyer must first help Kiana deal with Apep, an unstable factor. Coincidentally, just as Buyer and Sora arrived at the Abyss of Layered Rock, they encountered Kiana, who was preparing to take Bella to Sumeru.

After a brief explanation, Kiana immediately joined the team to rescue Apep. It has to be said that with Kiana as a helper, the search speed increased significantly.

Before long, they found Apep's familiars carrying the flame. Perhaps because Apep's familiars were pure elemental life forms, after a long period of contact with other creatures, their appearance unconsciously resembled that of the creature they had been in contact with the longest—the mushroom beast.

"Speaking of which, I thought you would keep this [Fire Seed] with you, but I didn't expect you to let Apep's retinue take it around to collect energy."

"Out of caution, I didn't choose to carry it with me, but instead had Apep's family members volunteer to take the [fire] out to collect energy," Buyer replied.

"It's just a good thing I didn't choose to carry it with me, otherwise this [seed] would probably have been contaminated, and even I would have had a hard time purifying it."

"Yes, it's fortunate that I entrusted the fire to these children to keep safe, thus preserving our hope."

"But you're worried that you might be contaminating the [fire], so why didn't you consider that you might be carrying forbidden knowledge?"

"After all, this [spark] was just pure energy. At the time, I had just resolved the effects of forbidden knowledge on Apep, and I was only worried about some residual pollution on my body. I never expected that the complete forbidden knowledge would be lurking in my body, and in the end, it even polluted the World Tree..."

"So, can any of you explain to me what's going on? I haven't understood what you're saying since just now. And what exactly is this crisis that concerns the very survival of Mount Sumeru?!"

Paimon stamped his foot and asked, somewhat confused. It was only then that Buyer remembered that he hadn't explained what had happened to Kong and Paimon.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to explain because of the urgency of the situation," Buyer apologized. "Anyway, you should know about the Elemental Dragon King, right?"

"We know this; it's about the Dragon King Ruoduo and Dwarin, so this matter is related to the Elemental Dragon King of Sumeru?"

"Yes, the elemental dragon king living in Sumeru is the grass elemental dragon king Apep. Unlike the dragon kings like Ruoduo, the grass elemental dragon king has not experienced a generational change. In other words, Apep is the first grass elemental dragon king."

"The first Grass Elemental Dragon King didn't experience a generational change, which means that Apep is very old?"

"Yes, in a sense, there may be no longer-lived creature on the continent of Teyvat today."

As he spoke, Buyer glanced at Kiana subtly, and Kiana instinctively returned a look, signaling Buyer not to reveal too much.

"For some reason, Apep was infected by forbidden knowledge during the war between demons thousands of years ago. Although Helakti and I helped to temporarily suppress the forbidden knowledge in Apep's body, allowing him to survive."

"Hasn't this already been resolved? Why are you still looking for this... um [Fire Seed]? And judging from your conversation, this thing seems quite important."

"The Great Tree King Paimon just said that it's only a temporary suppression, not a complete purification," Kong reminded him from the side.

"Oh right!" Paimon exclaimed in realization.

"Well, let's talk about the details as we go."

After healing the fungus that had been suppressed by the Heavenly Nail, Buyer got up and led everyone away from the Layered Rock Abyss, heading towards the direction where Apep was.

Of course, this part of the direction was guided by Appepu's retinue, after all, they were beings born from Appepu's body and had the instinct to return to their nest, so it was most appropriate for them to lead people to Appepu's residence.

"Going back to the previous topic, because the forbidden knowledge within Appepp's body was extremely powerful, after we suppressed it, Appepp's core was inevitably damaged, causing Appepp's self-healing ability to disappear and making it unable to repair the damage caused by the forbidden knowledge."

"If it can't heal itself, then wouldn't that mean...!"

"Paimon, you guessed right. Because he lost his self-healing ability, Apep's life gradually came to an end. But the grass element is the element that symbolizes life, and even so, Apep survived by relying on the grass element energy in his body."

“But this is only temporary,” Kiana continued, picking up where Buyer left off. “Without the ability to heal itself, Apep’s injuries cannot be relieved, which leads to an ever-increasing demand for grass element energy to sustain life. As a result, the amount of grass element energy accumulating in Apep’s body is also increasing until this fragile balance completely collapses, at which point Apep will die.”

"Once Apep dies, all the grass element energy within its body will erupt, and the area, including the desert, will be completely overrun by rampant plants due to the excessive grass element energy."

"I don't understand. Isn't it a good thing that the desert is covered by vegetation? Why do you all sound like it's not a good thing..."

"Paimon, while it's certainly a good thing that the desert is regaining vegetation, what would you think if I told you that the vegetation consists of enormous trees, so dense that it's impossible to find a place to step?"

Upon hearing this, Paimon glanced back at Kong, then shrugged, indicating that he still didn't understand.

"What else can we think of? At worst, we can all live in the trees and that will solve the problem."

"But how will you solve the food problem? You know, there won't even be a place to stand, so where will you find land to grow food? Besides, this is just the impact under normal circumstances."

"This is just a normal situation?! Could there be some unexpected situation?!"

Buyer nodded: "You should know that there are still remnants of forbidden knowledge in Apep's body. In the worst case, the grass element energy that erupts after Apep dies carries forbidden knowledge. At that time, it will not be as simple as just changing the environment. Disasters that have been solved before, such as Demon Scale Disease and Dead Zone, will reappear in Sumeru. At that time, Sumeru will truly become a forbidden zone for life."

"What are you doing lounging around here? Let's hurry up and go find Appepp!"

Upon hearing this, Paimon became anxious and even stammered. Seeing this, Kiana quickly stepped forward to comfort Paimon.

“Alright, Paimon, don’t worry. The [Spark] we have was created to solve this problem. Thousands of years ago, Buyer combined the remaining pure energy of Apep with his own power to create this energy storage device called the [Spark].

"The purpose is to collect enough energy and then bring it back into Appepp's body to activate it, using the stored energy to stimulate Appepp's core's self-healing ability. Once Appepp has successfully recovered from his injuries, he can then receive the next stage of treatment. This wouldn't normally be necessary, but Appepp hates Sky Island, and therefore harbors strong hostility towards the demons..."

"I see!" Paimon Jing's reminder made him understand immediately. "The reason we only helped suppress him before was because Apep's injuries were too severe and he couldn't accept purification, so we needed to find a way to help him recover."

"But since Apep won't cooperate properly, I can only settle for helping it restore its self-healing ability and gain its trust along the way. But why does it hate Sky Island? And Kiana, how do you know so much?"

“Because the Elemental Dragon Lords were the rulers of Teyvat before the Sky Isles, but not after the Sky Isles arrived. The dragons fought a great war against the Sky Isles, which ultimately ended in a victory for the Sky Isles,” Buyer said.

"As for why Kiana knows so much..." Buyer said, turning to Kiana and asking, "Should you tell me or should I?"

"It'll be exposed in the end anyway, so you might as well say it for me."

"?"

Paimon looked at Kiana with a puzzled expression, then turned his gaze to Buyer, hoping Buyer could give him an answer.

“Because Kiana was another demon god, Herakti, who was present at the time!” Buyer laughed.

"Eh!!!!"

Compared to Paimon's surprise, Sora seemed much calmer. It's as if Sora had vaguely sensed it from the very beginning of the conversation, but at the time he couldn't be sure, so he had to keep this guess to himself.

"But...but Kiana, like Sora, came from another world, right? How did she become the Demon God of Sumeru? And she's the legendary teacher of the Red King, Heracli...?"

Yes, Kong and Paimon knew of Herakti's existence.

Since arriving in Sumeru, Sora has submitted the procedure for meeting the Grass God. But as Kiana said, there are too many people who want to meet the Grass God, and according to the order, by the time it's Sora's turn, it will be next year.

So Sora decided to use the second plan provided by Kiana, and arrived at the Sannin's residence based on the address provided by Kiana.

What they didn't expect was that Sora and Paimon encountered 'Shadow' there. After some explanation, they realized that the person in front of them was Shin, who had been resurrected by Kiana.

They learned from Shin that the skirmishers were currently conducting reconnaissance in the desert, so Sora and Paimon came to Aru Village together and successfully obtained information about the skirmishers from Candice.

It turns out that since Farusan and Kiana left, Rahman's archaeological team has encountered considerable obstacles. Although Cassandra is leading the team, she is only familiar with the ruins in the rainforest, and she is gradually becoming overwhelmed by the increasingly unfamiliar and unknown ruins in the desert.

More importantly, as the exploration deepened, various ruins and mechanisms emerged one after another. Coupled with the monsters and elemental constructs, Rahman and his men's combat strength became stretched thin.

Therefore, Cassandra had no choice but to seek help from the Church and issue a request to the Adventurers' Guild. Coincidentally, it was close to the Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival, and Buyer was reminded of the original Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival.

However, the Eye of Ujet, which was recorded as part of the Flower Goddess's birthday celebration, has been lost. So, Buyer suggested that the skirmishers go and help her, and they could also help her find the Eye of Ujet.

However, none of this had anything to do with Kong. After finding the stragglers, Kong directly stated his purpose.

The scattered soldiers, of course, wouldn't cooperate properly. They demanded that Kong and the others help them resolve this request first, otherwise they wouldn't try to help him meet the Grass God.

So, in order to meet the Grass God as soon as possible, Sora reluctantly agreed. It was during this trip that Sora learned a lot about the history of Sumeru.

Many of these stories are about the history of the three gods: the Grass God, the Red King, and the Flower God, as well as the history of the mysterious demon god Herakti, who was the Red King's teacher.

"...This is the story of what happened to us in Sumeru. I never imagined Kiana would be that mysterious demon...Ku, do you think I'll...?"

“Paimon, you know Kiana, she’s not that petty.”

"Yes, if I were really petty, Paimon, you would have suffered a lot long ago, and you wouldn't be alive and well until now."

Hearing Kiana's words, Paimon finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good!"

"However, this is only a part of the story. There are many more stories about Kiana, or rather, Herakti~"

"What?! There's more?!"

Seeing Paimon's surprised expression, Bouyer felt a surge of pleasure.