Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 152 Unsealing of the Layered Rock Abyss

With the Lantern Festival over, Yae no Miko naturally had no intention of staying in Liyue any longer. So she asked Kiana to take her back to Narukami Shrine. As for how Yae no Miko would explain her long absence, that was none of Kiana's concern.

Of course, Mei didn't go back with them. Inazuma Yukage saw that since Shin wasn't good at fighting, there was no need for him to go back. Mei, on the other hand, planned to leave alone for a while and go to Fontaine.

After all, the next mission is to help Kiana become the embodiment of justice. Although Kiana herself has already accomplished most of it, she has not said what to do next.

Mei also guessed that Kiana had no clue, so she discussed it with the others and decided to go to Fontaine to investigate clues.

Bronya will be in charge of Mondstadt, since she has decided to use the scenery of Mondstadt as the main model for the scene design of the next game. She will go to Fontainebleau to meet up with Mei once the investigation is over.

Fu Hua went to Shenyu Valley, firstly because it has the closest port to Fontaine where she could send Mei off, and secondly because she had heard that the last two of the Five Guardian Yakshas had perished there.

Ever since Fushe regained consciousness, he had been thinking about his brothers and sisters, but apart from Xiao, the other three had already perished, a fact that Fushe was well aware of.

But after learning that Inazuma's former Thor was resurrected by Kiana, Fusha felt a glimmer of hope.

It is hoped that Kiana can revive Fanan, Yingda, and Minu.

He knew, of course, that Kiana had no obligation to help him revive the three, and he also understood that he had no value that made Kiana willing to make a contract with him.

So he could only sit by the bedside all day, grieving alone. On the contrary, Bo Yang, who had been taking care of him, couldn't bear to see him like this and secretly told Kiana about it without Fu She's knowledge.

After learning the details, Kiana was naturally happy to help, so she asked Fu Hua to help her find clues about the last appearance of the other three Yakshas.

During this time, Fu Hua searched all over Liyue and finally found some clues when she and Zhong Li came to Qiaoying Manor to buy tea.

These clues were relayed to Kiana, who then searched the ley lines and confirmed that the legendary two mad, self-destructive yakshas were last seen in the Valley of Sinking Jade.

However, since Kiana had more important things to do, the task of finding the last place where the Yaksha appeared in Chenyu Valley had to be left to Fu Hua herself.

Of course, before setting off, Kiana still told Fu Hua the approximate coordinates to prevent Fu Hua from wandering aimlessly in Chenyu Valley like a headless fly searching for the specific location.

Kiana's intention was indeed simple: she wanted to emulate what the Reign of the Dead did in Nata—to inscribe rules similar to resurrection poems on the ley lines.

But before that, she first needs to find the ruler of death.

So she turned her attention to Sky Island, but as she had expected, the Death Ruler, who had already chosen to give up on himself, would naturally not stay on Sky Island for long.

Following the information provided by the earth's veins, Kiana arrived inside the alternate dimension where the Reign of Death resided.

"What can I do for you, Miss Kiana Kaslana, the successor of the Heavenly Principles?"

The Regent of Death remained calm when Kiana suddenly appeared before her, as if she had known all along that Kiana would come looking for her.

"It seems you're not surprised by my visit, so I'll get straight to the point: can Nata's Resurrection Poem rules also be applied to all ley lines?"

The ruler of death's eyes flickered for a moment, then looked at Kiana with a questioning gaze.

"I didn't understand a word of what Miss Kiana said."

“I know everything you’ve done for Nata, including your secret deal with the first Vulcan. Hiding it won’t work, Miss Ronawa.”

Hearing Kiana call out her real name, the Death Ruler Ronawa realized that her little scheme had been seen through long ago.

“How did you know?” Jonawa asked with a sigh. “There are these things…do they know?”

“You should know that the ley lines record everything. Even though the ley lines there are long since broken, the Kingdom of Night, which is the substitute for the ley lines, still retains this function. I just have my own unique methods for extracting ley line information, which they are unaware of.”

In fact, Kiana did not obtain this information from the Kingdom of Night, but rather directly from the information she obtained by observing the past through the Imaginary Tree.

In the past, the first god of fire, Shibarak, made a deal with Sky Island in order to obtain the power to fight against the abyss.

Since that transaction, Nata once again possessed a god belonging to the Sky Isles.

However, this power alone is far from enough to deal with the Abyss. In the end, Shibarak only obtained the Heart of God, which possessed the power of the Ancient Dragon of Fire, from Sky Island. In essence, he is still a human.

Being human means that Shibarak will grow old and die, and even if the Heart of God stretches this time long enough and far enough, it is still not enough in the face of the abyss.

He then set his sights on one of the Shadows, the Death Ruler, Jonawa. After a secret meeting with Jonawa, she agreed to Shibarak's deal.

He then sealed his power within the throne and brought it from Sky Island to Nata, leaving only a projection connected to his original body inside the throne.

He also inscribed the rule that the Nata people could be resurrected within the Kingdom of Night God. After obtaining the power of the Death Ruler, Shibarak relied on the newly written rules by Jonawa to establish the system of Resurrection Poems and the Holy Night Pilgrimage of Returning Fire to fight against the Abyss.

After doing all this, Ronawa left after receiving Shibarak's promise to protect their secret forever, and disappeared without a trace.

"So, you've asked me here to inscribe rules similar to those of Nata into all the ley lines?"

Seeing that she could no longer hide it, Ronawa simply gave up and admitted it.

"By the way, do they really not know about this?"

"Don't worry, Ishtar may have already noticed something. But she won't investigate further. After all, she herself has violated quite a few rules. If she really takes it to heart, neither of you will end up in a good situation."

"I can rest assured that."

Seeing Rona's relieved expression, Kiana thought it best not to tell her about the future she had seen before.

After all, in the future she saw, the Abyss would launch a full-scale attack in the near future, and the current Vulcan would also initiate her plan. At that time, the fact that the Vulcan possessed the power of the Death Ruler would inevitably be exposed, and Rona would naturally have to face questions from the other three rulers.

Kiana could only offer her respect and blessings in response.

"But wouldn't it be against the rules for me to inscribe the rules of resurrection poems on all the ley lines in Teyvat?"

"Perhaps, but you and I both know that the Abyss will launch a full-scale attack sooner or later. Nata is a case in point; it is currently suffering from the invasion of the Abyss, and the time for the Abyss to launch its full-scale attack is fast approaching."

Upon hearing this, Rona frowned, instinctively feeling that Kiana seemed to have something else to say to her.

"Launching a full-scale offensive? Miss Kiana, what kind of future do you foresee? Could you explain it to me in detail?"

Realizing that she had let something slip in order to persuade Jonathan as quickly as possible, Kiana decided to give up hiding it and told Jonathan everything about the future she had seen.

"So that's it."

After listening to Kiana's story, Jonawa realized the seriousness of the situation.

"Although we had long suspected that the Abyss possessed its own will, we never imagined that this will would be so intelligent. It seems we underestimated the Abyss."

"So, do you agree to inscribing the Resurrection Poem into the earth's veins?"

“This matter is of great importance and cannot be decided lightly by me. I will inform the other three later to discuss this matter together. Also, Miss Kiana, I hope you can help me keep my deal with Hibarak a secret later.”

"But wouldn't that be bad for the negotiations? Your deal with the first Vulcan, Shibarak, will be exposed no matter what, so why not just say it outright?"

"That matter was ultimately just a private deal between him and me, and it involved the life-and-death rules of Teyvat, which undoubtedly violated the rules set by our Lord. I don't think Miss Kiana would want Nata to be destroyed because of this, would she?"

"...Alright, you've convinced me. So what are you planning to do if things get exposed? Are you going to insist that Shibarak deceived you and obtained the power from you?"

“That’s right. Even if everyone knows the truth, they can’t convict me without clear evidence, and I won’t be punished.”

"Ok."

Seeing that Kiana had agreed, Ronawa contacted the other three rulers to discuss countermeasures against the Abyss.

Meanwhile, after observing for the past few days, the Liyue Seven Stars have also lifted the blockade on the Laminar Stream.

However, miners are still only permitted to mine in surface areas and shallow underground areas. On the other hand, Sora and several elite adventurers are tasked with escorting an archaeological team to investigate the ruins and Sky Spikes discovered by Keqing. Upon arrival at the designated location, Sora and the elite adventurers begin clearing away the surrounding monsters to ensure the safety of the entire archaeological team.

After several days of research, archaeologists discovered that the history of the inverted remains on the upper layer of Sky Spikes may date back to before the founding of Liyue.

This was undoubtedly a major discovery, but then bad news came from above.

In recent days, miners working in the surface mining area have noticed some Hilichurls with black auras emanating from their bodies walking blankly towards the underground mining area. Fearing that this might be a conspiracy by the Abyss Order, the Adventurers' Guild has sent several elite adventurers down to investigate.

The elite adventurers followed the eerie Hilichurls to the vicinity of the inverted ruins, where they found the Hilichurls sitting inside, lost in thought. They did nothing but quietly wait for the black aura surrounding them to completely engulf them.

Just as the adventurers stepped forward to investigate what was going on, they were driven away by a group of monsters wearing standard armor they had never seen before.

For safety reasons, the Adventurers' Guild ultimately decided to send Sora, a legendary adventurer, to investigate. The elite adventurers who had been driven away took over Sora's role in protecting the scholar, allowing Sora to proceed with his investigation of the ruins without worry.

Just as Sora was entangled with those armored monsters, he unexpectedly reunited with Daines Reeb. According to Daines Reeb, he had been tracking the Abyss Order's teleportation node ever since he and Sora parted ways.

As a result, he was countered and thrown here, and at the same time, he learned the identities of those monsters from Dainesreb.

The Black Serpents—that's the collective name for these monsters. In the past, they were all knights of the Kingdom of Kanria, ordered by Dainsreb, the Blade of the End, to cover the retreat of the Kanria people during that calamity.

The Hilichurls who come to this ruin were all citizens of Kanria in the past. Ever since the Sky Isle cast a curse that turned the people of Kanria into Hilichurls, those Hilichurls will gradually develop phenomena such as aversion to light as they age.

In the final days of their lives, these Hilichurls would choose to spend the rest of their days in places like this ruin. Although the Black Serpents did not know why they were here, they still obeyed the final order given to them by Dainsleib—to protect the people of Kanria.

That's why the adventurers who came to investigate were driven away. Now that the mystery of the Hilichurls has been solved, Sora has completed this mission after reporting the information to the Adventurers' Guild.

But the matter is not over yet. Since Daines Reb came here because of the Abyss Order, does this mean that the Abyss Order has been active here?

During their investigation together, Daines Reeb discovered that the fountain at the center of the inverted ruins seemed to have the power to lift the curse.

Meanwhile, Daines Reeb also discovered that there were many devices related to the Abyss Order inside the ruins, which seemed to be used to amplify some kind of energy.

Considering the function of the fountain in the center, Dainesreb instantly understood what the Abyss Order intended to do here.

They wanted to use the energy of the spring to break the curse on the Hilichurls within the ruins!

Realizing this, Daines Reeb rushed back to the fountain, but it was too late. The Abyss Apostle standing beside the fountain activated the devices.

The fountain's purifying power was amplified several times, causing Daines Reeb to have a strong rejection reaction.

Even though his body was in immense pain, Daines Reeb struggled to stop the ritual.

But now, powerless, he can do nothing and can only watch helplessly as the Hilichurls and the Black Serpents slowly lose their lives in agony.

Just then, a Black Serpent warrior, wielding a greatsword, staggered towards the fountain.