Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 140 Kiana: You didn't expect this, did you? I'm actually the one who caused this t

"Hmm, this shouldn't be happening at all. I just wanted to enjoy the Lantern Festival, but in the blink of an eye I've been assigned another task. What's the difference between this and any other time!"

"Paimon, stop complaining," Kiana comforted him. "I'm here to help, after all. Safety is especially important during the Lantern Festival. You don't want your fun to be interrupted by a sudden horde of monsters halfway through, do you?"

"That's true, but why are so many monsters gathering near Guili Plain? If I remember correctly, isn't that Xiao's area of ​​responsibility?"

"It seems that this is because a large number of monsters have appeared in Guili Plains for some reason during this period, which Xiao has been unable to deal with for a while. The Liyue Seven Stars wanted to send troops to help the Immortals, but they were unable to do so due to a lack of manpower. The Adventurers' Guild also temporarily put up a quest, but most of the adventurers chose to rest during the Lantern Festival... This is why the problem has been delayed again and again."

"Okay, I was just complaining a little. There must be a reason why these monsters suddenly gathered together. Why don't we try to investigate while we're clearing out the monsters?"

"That's possible, but don't forget what Ningguang specifically asked us to do before she left," Kong reminded her.

"I know, it's just a matter of finding a way to let Keqing rest, that's easy!"

Kiana, Sora, and Paimon chatted as they arrived near Guili Plain. Although they were mentally prepared, they were still taken aback by the sheer number of monsters when they got there.

Fortunately, they were mostly Hilichurls and slimes, and Kiana and Sora quickly cleared the area.

"Phew! Finally, it's over. I really don't know why there were so many monsters. Do monsters also celebrate the Lantern Festival?"

Faced with Paimon's teasing, Kiana could only awkwardly scratch her cheek. Kiana actually knew the reason why so many monsters appeared on Guili Plain.

Rather, the appearance of so many monsters is largely due to Kiana. During this period, Kiana's frequent exploration of the ley lines during her seclusion attracted the attention of higher-level beings, triggering the defensive mechanisms hidden deep within the ley lines.

As a result, the previously stable ley lines began to become disordered, and a large amount of information about monsters was randomly released and scattered across the Guili Plain. It wasn't until Kiana emerged from seclusion a few days ago that she realized the trouble she had caused. At that time, Fu Hua was wandering the streets and alleys. When she noticed the abnormal accumulation of monsters in the Guili Plain, she considered taking action to resolve the situation, but was dissuaded by Granny Ping.

The reason given is that Guili Plain is Xiao's area of ​​responsibility, and he has handled many similar incidents on a regular basis. This kind of matter can be left to Xiao, and there is no need to add another immortal to the area. Bronya, on the other hand, had helped when searching for materials in Guili Plain, but the monsters respawned after Bronya left.

Kiana immediately began clearing the area after emerging from seclusion, but because the ley lines were still disrupted, all the monsters were resurrecting at an extremely fast pace, leaving Kiana unable to stabilize the ley lines for the time being.

My purpose in going to Liyue wasn't just to accept Kurumi's invitation; I also wanted to find someone who could help. After all, it was really too much for Xiao to handle the constantly spawning monsters throughout Guili Plains by himself. Without Kiana's help in clearing the monsters these past few days, they might have already multiplied enough to form a siege force. And even if I couldn't find anyone to help, I could always post a quest and try my luck.

Now that she has helpers, she can take the opportunity to completely solve the problem of the ley lines. After much hesitation, Kiana decided to tell the two the truth about everything.

"What? So it turns out that Kiana went to investigate some things in the ley lines, which caused the ley lines to become disordered and led to this situation."

"Anyway... that's it. So, could you please help me clear out the monsters on Guili Plain? Don't worry, it won't take long and will be over soon!"

Seeing Kiana's pleading expression with her hands clasped together, Paimon softened and agreed. However, she was also curious about why Kiana would risk going to the ley lines to investigate. After all, the ley lines are a vital system maintaining Teyvat, and they usually exist on the continent of Teyvat in the form of imaginary space.

Ordinary people simply cannot access ley lines, let alone delve into them to investigate. What Paimon didn't expect was that Kiana's Herrscher of the Void ability, used to open the portal, was essentially manipulating imaginary space. For Kiana, manipulating things existing within imaginary space was an incredibly simple matter.

Kiana hadn't expected the Sky Ruler to be so sensitive to issues related to ley lines, nor had she anticipated that her abilities were connected to the Imaginary Dimension. Upon realizing Kiana was using the ley lines to investigate something, the Sky Ruler intervened without hesitation, disregarding the difference in their strength. Had Kiana not felt guilty and not wanted to kill, the Sky Ruler would have been either dead or severely injured the moment she attacked.

The lightest price would be the same fate as the Heavenly Law—falling into a deep sleep; the worst would be death. Seeing the Sky Ruler's unwavering resolve, Kiana decided to abandon her search for clues from the ley lines and instead travel to Sumeru to seek the help of the Grass God to connect with the World Tree and obtain answers.

After all, the World Tree records everything on Teyvat. Except for events directly related to the Adventists, which are recorded vaguely, all other information is recorded in extremely detailed and complete detail. However, before that, he still needs to deal with the trouble he has caused.

"Sure, but what exactly is Kiana investigating that requires going into the ley lines? And are ley lines even places that people can enter?"

"Even demons cannot freely enter and exit ley lines, let alone ordinary people. I just happen to have the special ability to enter ley lines. As for what I'm going to investigate... that's not something I can just say."

"Why?"

"Paimon!" Kong quickly spoke up to remind him, "There are some things you can't just know, or you'll bring disaster upon yourself."

"Oh right! Kiana, you'd better not tell me, I'm scared."

After Sora's reminder, Paimon recalled the consequences Kiana had faced for her trouble and couldn't help but feel a little scared. Ultimately, he gave up on getting to the bottom of it. After all, Paimon was more concerned about his safety than satisfying his curiosity. What if knowing about Kiana's investigation made him a target? That would be a huge loss.

What followed was quite simple: Sora was in charge of clearing out the monsters on the Guili Plain, while Kiana immediately went to the imaginary space where the ley lines were located to find a way to stabilize them. To be honest, this was completely new to Kiana, who had no prior knowledge of the subject. Fortunately, the ley lines themselves were a huge information storage system, containing methods for stabilizing them.

As long as Kiana finds a way to stabilize the ley lines before the Ruler of the Void discovers her, and then leaves the Imaginary Space, it seems quite simple, right?

Under Paimon's curious gaze, Kiana opened the portal. Strangely, even though Paimon's understanding of ley lines was no different from that of ordinary people, he still recognized at a glance that the space behind the portal was the space where the ley lines were located.

This made Kiana subconsciously glance at Paimon a couple more times, and it was at this moment that Kiana realized that this Paimon seemed to be something special.

Kiana didn't have much time to think about it. She'd investigate Paimon's background later, once the ley lines were stabilized. She could treat it as helping Sora investigate Paimon's origins. Although they were best friends, Kiana's curiosity about Paimon's true origins had been burning for a long time. So, driven by her curiosity, Kiana entered the portal.

This is the imaginary space where the ley lines are located; at first glance, it seems to be empty.

But in Kiana's eyes, this space was a different scene altogether. Everywhere she looked, there were patterns resembling tree roots, or rather, pathways, and these pathways were the ley lines.

The so-called ley lines are high-concentration energy channels, but these channels carry more than just energy; they also contain all the information of the Teyvat continent, including the souls of dead beings, which are transformed into the purest energy and information through these channels. The energy is used to nourish the Teyvat continent, while the information is uniformly transmitted to the World Tree for storage.

But it's less about transmission and more about copying and pasting. All the information inside the ley lines, after flowing through the World Tree, is stored not only inside the World Tree but also inside the ley lines themselves.

The only difference is that manipulating the World Tree requires certain permissions, and currently only the Sumeru Grass God, who is the incarnation of the World Tree, has this permission. Therefore, it is essential to obtain information from the World Tree by relying on the power of the Grass God.

However, now is not the time to dwell on these things. Kiana shook her head, clearing her mind of the random thoughts for the time being, and began to focus on sensing the energy fluctuations of the ley lines.

She then found several places with extremely high energy fluctuations nearby. After sensing all the locations, Kiana began her work of stabilizing the ley lines.

At first, she thought she would need relevant knowledge to stabilize the ley lines, but to Kiana's surprise, defeating the monsters released due to the disorder of the ley lines was also a way to stabilize them. In fact, she could even get a certain amount of reward from the ley lines after stabilizing them using this method.

This is one of the causes of the so-called ley line phenomenon. Due to certain reasons, the ley lines become twisted or disordered to a certain extent, resulting in the ley line phenomenon. After defeating the monsters that have emerged from the ley lines, two kinds of buds called [Hidden Gold] and [Revelation] will grow in the area where they are located. Those with relevant experience in dealing with them can obtain a large amount of Mora and Adventurer's Insights as rewards.

Although she felt a little bad for Sora, he certainly wouldn't mind receiving a large amount of Mora or Adventurer's Insights as a reward afterward. Moreover, to show her sincerity, Kiana even specially increased the output of the two types of flower buds and didn't require specific items to make them bloom. No matter how you look at it, Sora got a freebie!

Thinking of this, Kiana's initial guilt completely vanished, and she used the phenomena arising from the ley lines to stabilize all the chaotic ley lines nearby. At the same time, she noticed that the monsters were no longer appearing in swarms; instead, numerous ley line phenomena had emerged before her.

Normally, he would only be able to see the phenomenon of ley lines emerging from the earth occasionally by relying on information from the Adventurers' Guild. Now, he could see them directly, and there was more than one!

"Paimon, we're rich now!"

Sora shouted excitedly, all fatigue instantly vanishing from his body. Full of energy, Sora ignored Kiana's instructions and focused solely on activating the nearest ley line.

"This is the end!"

After resolving the last ley line disorder, Kiana breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away imaginary sweat from her forehead.

Then she sensed another distorted ley line not far away, but strangely, it didn't show any signs of disturbance. A distorted ley line usually indicates disorder, but this one remained perfectly calm.

Out of curiosity, Kiana went to the location where the ley lines were twisted. By sensing the coordinates in real space, Kiana understood the real-world location corresponding to these ley lines.

This is the lowest level of the Layered Rock Abyss, specifically beneath a celestial nail. Strangely, beneath this nail lies a bizarre space, which Kiana senses seems to possess its own consciousness. However, this consciousness is too weak to directly exert a strong influence on people, but it can project people's deepest fears or things they most desire to see, leaving them within the space.

Then it will slowly absorb the people or creatures inside as nutrients for its growth; in other words, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to consider this space as a living organism. Moreover, through the ley lines here, Kiana also learned some information about the Dark Calamity of Liyue five hundred years ago, which, in general, was as tragic as ever.

Moreover, the last of the guardian demons also died here. Furthermore, the spacetime within was extremely chaotic; Kiana even sensed the presence of Sora, Paimon, and others. This made Kiana hesitant to eliminate the space, as she couldn't guarantee that the people inside wouldn't still exist if she destroyed it.

However, those who needed saving still needed to be saved, and Kiana also discovered that this space could shield her from the spying of Sky Island. In other words, whatever she did in that space wouldn't be noticed by Sky Island.

This would give me the opportunity to conduct my own experiment, but before that, I need to rescue the people inside first.

With this in mind, Kiana used the twisted ley lines to reach Sora, who was inside the space.