Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 107 The Tale of the Stepping Stones (1)

"So this is all the experience you had during your trip down the mountain to hold the Divine Cherry Blossom Purification Ceremony?"

After listening to Kiana's report, Yae no Miko touched Hana Sanri's mask and said with a wry smile, "She hasn't changed at all!"

"So you know that Hana-san?"

"No, I only know Fox Palace. As for Flower Scattering, I regret that I have never met him in the past few hundred years, so I don't know him."

Actually, they knew each other. After all these years, what wouldn't Inazuma know about? Moreover, a hundred years ago, an Onmyoji not only single-handedly completed the Great Exorcism of the Divine Cherry Blossom, extending Inazuma's life by a hundred years, but also sealed Goyakuzo in the Guardian Forest and placed the comb talisman near Goyakuzo's statue for him to keep safe.

How could such important matters escape Yae no Miko's ears? Out of curiosity, Yae no Miko naturally investigated thoroughly and discovered the figure of a shrine maiden wearing a fox mask among them. Upon discovering this, Yae no Miko immediately intended to greet the shrine maiden, but Hana-sanri was ultimately just a defiled being with some of the memories of Kitsui-gumi, and had disappeared without a trace after the Great Purification of the Divine Sakura.

Until recently, with the Great Purification Ceremony of the Divine Cherry Blossom approaching, Yae no Miko, for certain considerations, did not intend to hold the ceremony herself. In the end, Hana Sanri once again appeared on the land of Inazuma, waiting for the destined person to come and hold the ceremony.

It was at this time that Yae no Miko secretly found Hana no Mikoto. Although she did not communicate with her in person, she still confirmed her true identity. From then on, Yae no Miko no longer cared about the Okami no Daisho ritual. In addition, due to the loss of the ritual, no one in Inazuma could be found to perform the ritual.

Until the remnants of consciousness truly reappear.

"Could you tell us about this person, Fox Palace?"

“Her!” Yae no Miko’s expression was blank, her pupils dilated, and her words inadvertently revealed a tone of longing.

"She's a bastard. Back then, I was just a little fox clinging to Zhen's shoulder. Five hundred years ago, she suddenly told me that she was going on a long journey and asked me to temporarily take her place as the palace chief. At first, I disagreed, but she tricked me into thinking that the position of palace chief was actually very easy. All I had to do every day was order those witches around and sit there eating my favorite fried tofu."

At this point, Yae no Miko laughed, but there was a slight bitterness in his voice.

"I actually believed it back then and accepted the position. I never expected to be so overwhelmed by the heavy workload of the chief priest on my very first day. But I couldn't go back on my word, so I gritted my teeth and kept going, thinking that I just had to wait until she came back. But that wait lasted five hundred years, and the news of her death had already reached my ears on the third day after I took office..."

Kiana opened her mouth, but the words of comfort she wanted to say stuck in her throat. After all, Yae no Miko had somehow pulled out a light novel and was reading it while recounting her past with Kitsune-no-Miya.

"Speaking of which, why can Miss Yae recognize Miss Shin at a glance, but Miss Kage, who is her younger sister, can't..." Mei, who was sitting to the side, finally couldn't help but ask the question that had been hidden in her heart for a long time.

"Shadow, Shadow, my silly best friend, that's just how she is, so dull and inflexible. Once she's made up her mind about something, she won't turn back even if she hits a brick wall. It's so easy to fool her, it's more like I'm impressed that she can even realize it."

Mei still felt uneasy after hearing the answer. After all, based on the memories that were spilling out from Shin's side, she really didn't want to lie to Kage if she could. However, Kage's performance really disappointed her. But in the end, she was already dead, and what remained was just a consciousness that could dissipate at any time.

She was truly afraid. She was afraid that after she and Ying recognized each other, Ying would watch her fade away with time, and that Ying would make decisions that would disappoint her even more. Moreover, she didn't want Ying to live in her shadow forever. One day, Ying would have to learn to think independently, instead of being a Shadow Warrior who didn't need to think about anything and only needed to protect the real Ying.

Is there really no way to make consciousness last forever?

Mei asked a question, Kiana was the first to fall silent, but Yae no Miko finally spoke up.

"For the living, eternal consciousness may be possible, but for the dead, it is absolutely impossible. Otherwise, they wouldn't only have this remaining consciousness, and they wouldn't even need to rely on the Dream Heart to sleep. Not to mention that the living also have to face the constant wear and tear; time has always been the enemy of us immortal beings."

"Can you tell us what wear and tear is?" Fu Hua asked, looking at Yae no Miko with a flicker in her eyes.

"The so-called wear and tear is a price that nature imposes on all the long-lived species in Teyvat. As time goes by, we will gradually lose the things around us or our memories. These are all forms of wear and tear. It is said that the Dragon King of Liyue lost his memory due to wear and tear. In addition, people's excessive mining destroyed the ley lines on which the earth dragons depended for survival, which ultimately led to the great war between the Dragon King and the Geo Archon, and the Dragon King was sealed away."

“I understand now. It seems that immortality in every world comes with various costs,” Fu Hua murmured.

"Oh? Now that you mention it, you know what the price of immortality is in other worlds?"

"I suppose so. After all, we are also outsiders from outside this world, and we have witnessed the price paid by the immortal beings of other worlds. If you want to hear about it, I can tell you."

"No need." Yae no Miko shook her head. "I'm not interested in these things. Rather, I have a few requests I'd like to entrust to you. Are you interested?"

Kiana looked at Yae no Miko's cunning smile and finally understood why foxes have been known as cunning since ancient times.

However, she offered too much, and Kiana and the others couldn't refuse from any angle. So, after a little internal struggle (which they didn't really have), Kiana resolutely accepted the commission.

According to the instructions, they need to go to a place called Tatsumara, where the largest knife forging factory in Inazuma is located.

However, recently, the largest furnace in that factory—the Mikage Furnace—has encountered some problems. A shrine maiden named Ayumi, who was traveling nearby, had repeatedly reported the situation to the guards at the nearby military base, Kujo Jinya, but the reply she always received was that she needed instructions from her superiors before she could act. Not wanting to see their shrine maiden being passed around like a ball any longer, they asked Kiana and the others to go to Futabasa to resolve the matter.

Of course, they could choose not to go, but the only consequence would be that the entire Futsuna would be blown to the sky by what was inside the Mikage furnace, forcing Inazuma's map to be redrawn.

Watching Yae no Miko casually describe how Tatsumara would disappear from the map, Kiana couldn't tell whether she cared about Inazuma's people or not. After all, although all of Tatsumara's employees had been laid off, a technical consultant who had come all the way from Fontaine remained there.

If Tamasa were truly blown up, Inazuma would not only have to deal with potential diplomatic issues, but also resolve the issue of finding jobs for a large number of workers. Either way, it would be a daunting task, forcing Kiana and the others to urgently travel to Tamasa to handle the situation.

The first thing to do was to find the technical advisor named Xavier. Fortunately, he wasn't hard to find; he usually spent his free time observing data at the factory entrance. Therefore, Kiana and the others found him in no time. However, after meeting him, they still spent a lot of time explaining the relationship between Mei and the Raiden General.

After the explanation, Xavier was relieved. He knew that General Thunder was the goddess who ruled over Inazuma, an existence equal to their Fontaine's water goddess. If she were to intervene, Xavier would likely face trial at the Opiclie Opera House in Fontaine. As a fledgling inventor, he couldn't afford such trouble.

However, the first thing to do now is to remove the cover that covers the entire factory. Although the cover prevents the evil spirits inside from escaping, it has also created a bomb whose power increases over time.

According to Xavier's observations over the past few days, although the barrier can hold for a few more months, if the problem isn't resolved within that time, and the barrier collapses, the explosive force will be devastating, not only for Tasuna, but also for the entire Kannazuka and the adjacent Hachiun Island. The subsequent disaster will also affect Narukami Island, where Inazuma Castle is located, as well as another island in Inazuma with a large population, Umijima Island.

It is said that the people of Haiji Island do not worship the Thunder General of Narukami Island, but rather the demon god Obaros who once caused a great war and was killed by the Thunder General with a single blow.

Although General Raiden spared the people of Umijima Island and generously accepted them as subjects of Inazuma, he ultimately failed to prevent them from continuing to worship Obaros. This led to ongoing conflicts between the two islands. Furthermore, the implementation of the Eye Hunting Order caused a large number of Eye of God holders to flee to Umijima Island to form a resistance army, further exacerbating the friction between the two sides. If Mikage's inner core were to explode at this time, Inazuma would likely descend into a full-blown civil war.

This is something Xavier doesn't want to see. Moreover, the Mikage Furnace Core was something Fontaine helped repair. If problems arise and can't be resolved, where will Fontaine's reputation be?

"In short, in my beautiful homeland of Fontainebleau, we usually send in professionals with the Eye of God to investigate the situation. Before you arrived, I could only observe from the outside based on my past cases and experience, and make inferences accordingly. It should be that the device storing the core of the evil spirit has malfunctioned, thus affecting the protective shield I set up."

Yes, even this shield was activated by Xavier according to the steps in the "Mikage Furnace Heart Emergency Response Procedure Guide (Trial Version)". However, for some unknown reason, the shield also malfunctioned, turning it into a one-way shield that could only be entered but not exited.

While this made the shield stronger, it also exacerbated the internal problems, eventually turning the entire core into a giant bomb that exploded with fireworks visible even in Xavier's hometown of Petrique.

“Time is of the essence, can you tell us what to do?” Bronya interrupted Xavier, who was talking non-stop.

"Sorry, sorry, it's been so long since anyone's been here that I got a little flustered. Anyway, the first thing we need to do is remove this shield that's also having problems. Then, you two with the 'Divine Eye' will take my equipment in to collect specific data and bring it back for me to analyze. That way, I can find a solution. Originally, this matter should have required a review panel to make a decision, but time is tight, and you two aren't professionals, so let's skip those tedious steps for now."

"Understood, we will find a way to solve this problem."

As Kiana was about to leave, she prepared to search for the key clue to open the shield, but before she could leave, Xavier called her back.

"Wait a minute! I have some strange data here, but I don't think you're too lazy to listen to this boring data. To make a long story short, I just want to find a clue to open the cover, which may be located in the location of this strange data."

Xavier then took out a map and pointed out the location where the strange data appeared to Kiana. Kiana left after memorizing the coordinates. The rest of the group planned to go in with their equipment to collect the data, but because Mei and Fu Hua did not have the Eye of God, Xavier strictly forbade them from entering. Helpless, Mei and Fu Hua had to stay where they were and chatted with Xavier.

Fortunately, they also learned a lot of information from Xavier. For example, the problem of Mikage's furnace core was originally just a simple one, but because it required orders from higher authorities to be executed, various delays occurred, resulting in the current situation.

Meanwhile, Kiana, who had arrived at the designated location, discovered a number of Fatui members loitering nearby. An unnatural hole had appeared in the protective shield in the vicinity, suggesting that this hole was the source of the strange data. It was possible that the Fatui members were responsible for this hole.

Kiana then chased away all the Fatui and reported what had happened to Xavier.

After listening, Xavier offered his advice: "Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. We can use the opening created by the Fools to shatter this shield. The only problem is that your companions have already gone in to collect data. I don't know if the inside of the shield will be affected when it is shattered."

Kiana assured Xavier, "Don't worry, Bronya is very strong. Even if the barrier breaks and affects the inside, it won't hurt her!"

"really?"

Xavier looked at Kiana suspiciously, then at the other two, and seeing that none of them showed any sign of worry, he had no choice but to agree.

"Alright, it's definitely impossible to break the protective shield with ordinary power. Miss Kiana, you might need to go to this place and find a cannon that uses lightning elemental power to strike that spot to break the shield."

Xavier explained to Kiana how to use the cannon called "National Collapse" while calculating the cannon's ability to hit the designated location based on the crack's position and pointing it out to Kiana.

After looking at the map, Kiana packed up quickly and left. Mei was a little worried that Kiana hadn't understood how to use it. After thinking about it, she decided to go with Kiana.

The two of them arrived at the designated location and successfully found the cannon.

After a few simple operations, the shield was successfully broken, and Bronya, having collected enough data inside, began her return journey as the shield was now deactivated.

Before long, everyone gathered there to await Xavier's final analysis.