As Jiang Yan's voice fell, a pale white halo lit up in his palm.
Against monsters like these, he couldn't even be bothered to use Vector Manipulation.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit was more than enough.
Jiang Yan swung his fist, violently shattering the air in front of him.
Cracks spread outward from his hand like a spiderweb.
"Airquake!"
With a cold shout from Jiang Yan—
The surrounding snowfields shattered instantly. The violent tremors seemed to make the entire mountain cry out in agony.
Several Cryo Lawachurls let out miserable roars before being crushed by the shockwaves, their bodies breaking apart into black fragments that sank into the earth.
Jiang Yan rarely used the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Because every time he did, the surroundings would become a complete mess.
Just like now.
The once-pristine Dragonspine had been shaken into chaos by the vibrations.
"So strong!"
Alice widened her eyes in shock.
She had long heard that Liyue's Wood Spirit Immortal Lord possessed unfathomable strength.
Now it seemed the rumors were no exaggeration.
"Alright, Miss Alice."
Jiang Yan turned around and said with a smile,
"Welcome to Liyue."
"Then I'll trouble the Immortal Lord to be my guide."
Alice replied playfully.
Judging from the timeline, Klee hadn't been born yet.
Alice wasn't a mother yet—at most she was a charming and adventurous mature big sister.
After descending Dragonspine, Jiang Yan guided Alice across the lands of Liyue.
Along the way, he introduced the customs and culture of various regions.
Eventually they arrived at Wangshu Inn, sitting down at a table.
Alice finally asked the question she had been holding in all this time.
"Immortal Lord… are you also part of the Elf race?"
As she spoke, she looked curiously at Jiang Yan's pointed ears.
Because Alice herself had pointed ears—she knew very well that she belonged to the Elf race.
Jiang Yan smiled and nodded.
He didn't deny it.
After all, the system had indeed changed his race.
"Oh?"
Alice's ears twitched slightly, clearly excited.
Elves were extremely rare in Teyvat.
Even in Mondstadt, Alice had never seen another elf besides herself.
She had once heard from a friend about the Immortal Lord of Liyue.
That friend had described Jiang Yan in detail—a man suspected to belong to the Elf race.
When Alice heard that at the time, she had immediately wanted to visit Liyue to see for herself.
But then—
Five hundred years ago, the great catastrophe occurred.
Her friend disappeared during that disaster.
"So what my friend said was true. The Immortal Lord really is an elf."
Alice said softly.
"Your friend?"
Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow.
What—people had been secretly studying him?
"Yes."
"My friend… Rhinedottir."
Alice stared closely at Jiang Yan's expression as she spoke the name.
But Jiang Yan showed almost no reaction.
He calmly lifted his teacup and took a sip.
A joke.
Did she really think he had spent thousands of years around Morax without learning something?
At the very least—
He had learned Morax's calm and unreadable demeanor quite well.
After all, he was already over 2,500 years old himself.
"Rhinedottir…"
Jiang Yan chuckled softly, sounding almost mocking.
"That name sounds familiar."
Alice's hand suddenly tightened.
"Immortal Lord… you participated in the Khaenri'ah War, didn't you?"
"Can you tell me… where Rhinedottir went after that war?"
Jiang Yan set down his teacup.
"Hmm… well, I suppose I do have some authority to speak about that war."
"After all…"
He glanced at Alice, who was watching him nervously.
"It was I and the Heavenly Principles…"
"Who destroyed Khaenri'ah."
Alice's body trembled violently.
Shock filled her eyes.
The disaster had come far too suddenly.
By the time she fully realized what had happened, Khaenri'ah was already gone.
Her close friend—
Rhinedottir, the Sage of Khaenri'ah, also known as Gold—
had vanished without a trace during the chaos.
To the outside world, the story had always been that the Seven Archons and the Heavenly Principles destroyed Khaenri'ah.
Only recently had Alice heard rumors that Liyue's Immortal Lord might have participated in that war.
Curious about him—and desperate to learn Rhinedottir's fate—Alice decided to visit Liyue.
But she hadn't expected that Barbatos would immediately tip Jiang Yan off the moment she arrived near Liyue's borders.
"I have no objections to Khaenri'ah's destruction."
Alice said quietly.
"They touched things they never should have touched."
"What happened to them was inevitable."
"I only want to know where my friend Rhinedottir went."
Jiang Yan's expression softened slightly.
At least Alice wasn't trying to attack him for destroying her friend's homeland.
Still…
Rhinedottir…
He vaguely remembered that woman.
The monster tide that swept across Teyvat back then hadn't consisted only of abyssal creatures.
There were also alchemical constructs.
And those constructs—
Were creations of a woman named Rhinedottir.
Things like the Golden Wolflord and Rifthounds were her creations.
Back when Jiang Yan first arrived in Khaenri'ah, he vaguely recalled seeing her standing beside King Irmin.
But honestly…
His impression of Rhinedottir was extremely faint.
At the time he had been busy fighting the Lord of the Abyss.
Who had time to notice anything else?
However, that did remind him of something.
When the Abyss Lord retreated from the battlefield, he had taken some people with him.
Most likely—
Rhinedottir was among them.
"Hmm…"
"I can't guarantee whether your friend is alive or dead."
Jiang Yan said after thinking for a moment.
"But if she didn't die in that war, then it's very likely…"
"That she entered the Abyss."
"However, I can assure you of one thing."
"During that war, your friend never directly encountered me or the Heavenly Principles."
Hearing this, Alice finally let out a sigh of relief.
The thing she feared most wasn't Rhinedottir entering the Abyss.
It was the possibility that she had been eliminated by the Heavenly Principles.
If neither the Heavenly Principles nor Jiang Yan had encountered Rhinedottir—
Then the most likely outcome was that she had been taken away by the Abyss Lord. 🌌
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