"Effortless?!"
"Wait… does that mean the Geo Archon could suppress the Overlord of the Vortex easily even now?!"
Hearing the words effortless, Xuehua was stunned.
The livestream chat exploded again.
[Holy— the God of War indeed!]
[Didn't he just say he kept the Gnosis until now?]
[So without the Gnosis he can't suppress Osial?]
[I think he still can. Didn't you guys notice something?]
[Back in the Archon War, Guixu and Zhongli were already evenly matched]
[And Zhongli didn't even have a Gnosis back then]
[Exactly. He sealed Osial without one]
[Then what about Zhongli's Vision… is that just a decorative glass bead too?]
"Ah… but it seems now…"
"Just as a child grows up quickly after losing their parents…"
"This city called Liyue has also matured in the face of its god's death."
Signora sighed softly and spread her hands.
"I must say…"
"The final resolution of these events has satisfied me beyond expectation."
Zhongli spoke calmly.
"The adepti who dwell in seclusion possessed the least information."
"Yet they exercised the greatest restraint."
"When the crisis arrived, they cooperated with the Qixing."
"And in the end, they even attempted to understand the hearts of the people."
He then glanced toward Signora.
"This lady—an envoy sent by the Cryo Archon to fulfill our contract—"
"at my request concealed the truth from her colleague, Childe."
"She never revealed what she knew."
Zhongli continued.
"As for myself, I walked among the people as the mortal Zhongli."
"And in the end, I fulfilled Liyue's traditions as that very mortal."
He turned toward Lumine.
"This journey… thank you for accompanying me, Traveler."
Meanwhile—
Childe stared at Zhongli with an extremely strange expression.
Just staring.
Silently.
"All of this…"
"Was within my plan."
Zhongli continued.
"The only thing that exceeded my expectations…"
"…was the action of the Liyue Qixing."
Originally, his expectations for them were the same as for the adepti.
Simply protect Liyue.
"But the answer they ultimately delivered…"
"…was to seize the opportunity."
"To replace the gods."
"They used the power vacuum created by my 'death' to swiftly take control of all authority in Liyue."
Zhongli explained.
"That… doesn't sound like a good thing!"
Paimon said nervously.
"Haha…"
"I think it is very good."
"It is something I both feared was too early…"
"…and quietly hoped would someday come."
"It is the most sincere tribute to me, the old god."
Zhongli smiled faintly.
In the livestream, Xuehua sighed.
"Three thousand seven hundred years of work…"
"Yeah… the Geo Archon really does deserve retirement."
The chat joked.
[Translation: man wants retirement]
[Even gods get burnout]
[Jokes aside he protected Liyue for thousands of years]
[Yeah… you actually feel bad for Zhongli here]
"Hey."
"What about me?"
Childe suddenly spoke.
"You all played me like a fool."
"Aren't you going to apologize?"
He looked extremely annoyed.
From beginning to end—
He had basically been the clown of the entire situation.
Zhongli was the Geo Archon all along yet still held a Rite of Parting.
Then there was that foreign god who defeated him with a single finger.
He even tried releasing Osial to escape the gods' control.
But in the end—
Even that had been part of the Geo Archon's plan.
Xuehua burst out laughing.
"Hahahahaha!"
"Childe is so miserable!"
The chat agreed.
[LMAOOO]
[Think about it: fooled by teammates, calculated by Zhongli, one-shot by Qiu Nian]
[Man had the worst day ever]
["Aren't you going to apologize?"]
["What about me?"]
[Stop it I'm dying]
[Only the duck got hurt in this world]
"Heh…"
"Perhaps I should say thank you instead."
Signora said with amusement.
"Your disruption was part of the game."
"The Geo Archon should thank you for your wonderful performance."
She continued mockingly.
"If you had not created the immense pressure of a battle between mortals, adepti, and a god…"
"Then the lump of coal the Geo Archon has polished for thousands of years…"
"…this nation called Liyue…"
"…would never have become a shining diamond."
Childe's eye twitched.
"Why are you mocking your own colleague from another nation's god's perspective?"
"Want to fight?"
He snapped.
"Childe is so embarrassing."
Lumine said bluntly.
Even though she had also been fooled—
Childe clearly had it worse.
"Ah… damn it…"
"Don't expose me like that."
"Haven't the people of Liyue taught you to keep things polite?"
Childe coughed awkwardly.
"Wait!"
"What about Qiu Nian?!"
Paimon suddenly slapped her forehead.
She had almost forgotten the most important question.
"What exactly is his situation?"
"Hmm…"
Zhongli folded his arms thoughtfully.
"As Ganyu previously mentioned…"
"During the early days of the Archon War, I indeed fought a battle with Guixu."
"At that time, our strength was truly evenly matched."
"Later, he reconciled with me."
"And he signed a contract, remaining in Liyue as an adeptus."
"During those ten years…"
"He became friends with me—and with the adepti."
"Ten years later he left Liyue."
"Until recently… after thousands of years…"
"When you and Childe brought him to Xinyue Pavilion."
"That was when I recognized my old friend."
Zhongli explained calmly.
"Later I learned that he had returned to Liyue a few days earlier."
"And had been living in Jueyun Karst."
"Since the contract from his time as an adeptus had never expired…"
"I asked him to help Liyue during this storm beneath the surface."
"SO THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED?!"
Lumine and Paimon both stared in shock.
Paimon stomped angrily.
"That Qiu Nian!"
"What 'ancestral house' and 'martial arts manual'?!"
"That house was clearly built just a few days ago!"
"And he even said he was renovating it!"
"That martial arts story must've been fake too!"
Lumine puffed up angrily.
"And when we were in Jueyun Karst searching for the foreign god…"
"He said he would help us look!"
"So what was that?"
"I was searching for himself?!"
She clenched her fists on her hips.
Earlier she had even felt sorry for him—
Thinking he was some lonely man living by himself in Jueyun Karst.
"Haha…"
Even Zhongli couldn't help laughing softly at their reactions.
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