Travel through Teyvat and spend your life with Linghua

Chapter 182 The memory of the end

Everyone followed Zhongli's footsteps closely, their faces etched with solemnity, as if shrouded in a thick haze. The entire group was silent, with only the chaotic, heavy sound of footsteps echoing endlessly in this deadly space, seeming particularly abrupt and jarring.

In this way, the group walked forward in silence, finally arriving at a rock face. Zhongli stopped, slowly extended his right hand, and gently stroked the cold, rough surface of the rock face.

"Guizhong, if you really still have a trace of consciousness left, please give me some hints. Those past events have been haunting my mind like a nightmare for a long time...To this day, a thousand years have passed, can we really meet again?" Zhongli murmured to himself.

Seeing this, Ying, standing nearby, stepped forward and carefully placed her palm against the rock wall. She then closed her eyes and concentrated on sensing any clues. As time passed, Ying suddenly seemed to grasp some extremely subtle yet crucial information.

Ying slowly opened her eyes, staring at the rock face before her. She spoke softly, "It seems the source of that mysterious sound must be in here. For some reason, I can vaguely sense a pull, as if an invisible force is whispering to me. Although the feeling is faint, it's so clear and distinct that it's hard to ignore."

After hearing Ying's words, Xianyun, who had been standing by and observing quietly, could no longer suppress her curiosity. She quickly walked to the rock wall and placed her palm on it as well.

However, no matter how hard Xianyun tried to perceive, he could not detect anything unusual.

"Emperor, what is so special about this rock wall? Why can't I feel anything unusual?" Xianyun frowned and turned to look at Zhongli with a puzzled look on his face.

Zhongli didn't answer Xianyun's question immediately. He glanced at everyone present and said solemnly, "You all should step back a little."

After everyone retreated to a safe distance, Zhongli took a deep breath and slowly opened his arms. The surrounding rock elementals gathered around him.

As the rock elements gathered, Zhongli emanated a dazzling light.

Suddenly, Zhongli shouted softly, "Refuse to accept a sick son-in-law!"

A huge ridge of rock rose from the ground at an astonishing speed and rushed straight towards the rock wall.

After the dust settled, a deep cave appeared where the rock wall had been.

Zhongli stared at the cave and said with a complicated expression, "I hid Guizhong's remains here."

Everyone was stunned when they heard Zhongli's words, their eyes all turned to the shattered rock wall. They saw a hidden space slowly emerging from within, a soft light shining through.

Zhongli walked forward slowly, each step seemed particularly heavy, and the others followed silently behind him.

What caught my eye was an exquisite stone platform, upon which lay a figure, Gui Zhong. Her face remained gentle, though with an endless pallor and tranquility, as if she had simply fallen into a deep sleep.

In addition, there are many earth vein flowers growing in the secret room.

"Flowers of the earth veins. So many of them have grown in a thousand years. It seems that it is really because of the earth veins that part of the consciousness or memories related to her who died a thousand years ago have been preserved." Zhongli sighed softly, his eyes sweeping over the earth vein flowers that were blooming with soft light one by one.

Ying crouched down, leaning in close to examine a leyline flower. She could sense a faint, yet seemingly untold, aura emanating from it. "These flowers seem to be trying to communicate with us, but the feeling is vague, and it's hard to grasp their precise meaning."

At this moment, the previously quietly blossoming earth vein flowers suddenly became restless, their light radiating from them flickering violently. The light grew increasingly intense, interweaving and merging, slowly outlining a series of faint, dreamlike phantoms in the air.

Through the hazy light and shadows, a phantom image emerged: a scene from Gui Zhong's previous life, a workshop. She was absorbed in her work, her slender fingers deftly fiddling with the various intricate and delicate mechanical parts. Gui Zhong's face would sometimes furrow slightly in thought as she pondered a difficult problem; other times, a smile of ecstasy would break forth at the breakthrough or successful creation of a new mechanism.

"It's finally here! It really is finally here!"

Everyone's eyes were fixed on the phantom in the air, afraid of missing any details.

As the illusion continued to unfold, the scene before him shifted like a film sequence. Suddenly, the scene shifted to a spacious, bright room. Gui Zhong sat at a wooden table, Xian Yun beside him. The two seemed to be engaged in a lively discussion of some important topic, their expressions serious and earnest. Beside them, a massive crossbow mechanism, emitting a cold metallic sheen, was evidently an unfinished work.

"This... this should be the image of when Gui Zhong and I were renovating the Gui Zhong machine together. At that time, we were discussing the material issues of the Gui Zhong machine. Later, we held a small competition for this and invited Ge Chenlangshi to be the referee." Xianyun muttered to himself.

But before long, the atmosphere suddenly grew tense. Fire raged, smoke filled the air, and Gui Zhong was on the battlefield. Though she remained calm, her brow furrowed slightly. She quickly manipulated various mechanisms, their lights flickering in the darkness, repelling the incoming enemy. However, the enemy's offensive intensified, and Gui Zhong gradually began to feel powerless, a trace of fatigue and anxiety appearing on her face.

In desperation, Gui Zhong took out a magic weapon from his arms that he had never seen before. The magic weapon emitted a mysterious and powerful power fluctuation, which instantly enveloped Gui Zhong.

Soon the light gradually dissipated. Gui Zhong looked at the magic weapon with horror, and then looked at the overwhelming monsters. Then, Gui Zhong gritted his teeth and poured all his strength into it. The magic weapon released a devastating energy and rushed towards the enemy camp.

For a moment, the enemies were repelled by this powerful force, and a brief period of peace appeared on the battlefield. But in the end, due to excessive consumption of energy, his body was shaky and on the verge of collapse.

After the war, a ray of light appeared in the sky. Gui finally looked up at the sky, her eyes revealing endless despair and exhaustion. She knew that she was no longer able to resist the misfortune that was coming.

At this moment, everything around them seemed to have become silent, with only Gui Zhong's heavy breathing echoing in the air. She slowly raised her hand, still holding the magic weapon she had just used. At this moment, the magic weapon seemed to have lost its former brilliance and became dim.

Gui Zhong smiled helplessly, raised his hand and threw the magic weapon in his hand into the sky. The figure in the sky took the magic weapon and did not intend to leave. Instead, he created a cold sky nail in the sky above Gui Liyuan.

Gui Zhong stared blankly at the scene in the sky, her eyes filled with despair and powerlessness. She knew that once the Frost Sky Nail fell, Guiliyuan, the land she once loved and protected with everyone else, would suffer a devastating disaster, and countless lives would be wiped out by this powerful force.

In order to prevent the disaster from happening, Gui Zhong gathered all his remaining strength, dissolved himself into pieces, and died. Seeing this, the figure in the sky retracted the Frost Sky Nail and slowly disappeared. Later, Zhongli arrived at Guiliyuan, where Gui Zhong was the only one left.

Guizhong's memory also froze at the moment of saying goodbye to Zhongli.

Everyone stared at the phantom that stopped before them, unable to recover for a long time, their hearts filled with grief and anger.

Although no one else recognized that figure, Zhongli and Ying were deeply impressed - Tianli.