Hydro Qin's long hair was soaked by the seawater, flowing gently with the seabed. Her abdomen actually glowed with a starlike light, mysterious and eerie, as if hiding a condensed deep sea.
"Though I don't know what secret art the Abyss used, she is clearly also Yunqin." Zhongli spoke slowly, his gaze as complex as the crushed night sky. "Or rather, she is the one who is the Overlord of the Vortex, the child of Osial and Beisht."
Lumine nodded blankly, looking at Hydro Qin's quiet sleeping face. Her heart felt as if it were stuffed with a wad of wet cotton, heavy and stifled.
No matter how this "Yunqin" was formed, she ultimately bore Yunqin's shadow, carrying those unfulfilled expectations.
Just then, continuous vibrations suddenly came from the distant sea surface. The earth seemed to be trembling along with it, and even the sea surface beneath their feet rippled with muddy waves.
Everyone turned their heads sharply, only to see Hydra dragging its massive body, slowly crawling toward them.
It had already lost its previous ferocity. Eight of its nine heads were severed, and the wounds on its neck no longer healed. Thick green blood continuously dripped down its scales, forming nauseating foam on the sea surface and emitting a sickening stench of rot.
Clearly, as the mass of Abyss black mist was blasted out of Yunqin's body, Hydra's connection to her had been completely severed.
Without the Abyss's enhancement, its strength plummeted, and even its most basic self-healing ability vanished completely. Its appearance was exceptionally horrifying, like a beast on the brink of death.
"Now it seems we only need to deal with this big guy to stabilize the situation for the time being." A sharp glint flashed in Venti's eyes.
The Anemo energy around him was no longer suppressed, beginning to surge uncontrollably. The cyan light bloomed in his eyes like two burning emeralds.
When he was fighting the Hydra earlier, he had to hold back, first fearing he would hurt Yunqin, who shared one mind and body with it, and second fearing he would affect the people of Liyue Harbor...
He slowly approached the Hydra. The stench of rot and the sour, putrid smell of venom on the giant monster's body made him frown subconsciously, his disgust unconcealed in his eyes.
"Now that these concerns are gone, it's the perfect time to completely finish it off!"
Just as Venti raised his hand, preparing to condense a hurricane to sweep Hydra into the sky, the Blood Moon above suddenly erupted with an unprecedented crimson light.
That red hue seemed to drip blood, stinging people's eyes so they couldn't keep them open, and even the surrounding air was dyed an eerie dark red!
"Not good!" Zhongli and Lumine's expressions changed drastically at the same time, their hearts tightening sharply.
Just as they were about to speak up to stop Venti, a streak of extremely fast black light shot toward Venti like lightning!
Venti reacted quickly, barely dodging it by leaning to the side.
The black light grazed past his hood, slicing a clean gash through it, and the feather on the brim bore scorched marks from being burned.
He dared not linger, hurriedly transforming into a streak of green light and retreating to Zhongli's side, his chest heaving slightly from his rapid breathing as he stared at the attacker, still shaken.
Countless nearly transparent silver threads extended from the surface of the Blood Moon, forming a giant spiderweb that tightly bound the mass of Abyss black mist that had been blasted out of Yunqin's body.
Under the silver threads' guidance, the black mist writhed frantically. Flesh and blood were gradually reassembling, limbs were slowly regenerating, and Abyssal Moon patterns glowing with an eerie red light emerged on its surface, constantly shifting like living creatures.
As the Blood Moon's light gradually dimmed and began to crack, the silver threads also slowly withdrew into the "person's" body, as if they had never existed.
A figure hovered in midair, emitting an Abyssal aura so dense it was suffocating.
That pressure was several times more terrifying than the previously corrupted Yunqin, causing even the surrounding space to distort from this power.
She wore a long dress similar to Yunqin's, yet it shimmered with an eerie black light. Her long hair cascaded down like ink, and her eyes were pure black, devoid of any spark, like two bottomless ancient wells.
Another "Yunqin"!
Zhongli, Venti, and Lumine's pupils constricted simultaneously, their hearts feeling as if they were being squeezed by an invisible hand, as a strong sense of unease spread down their spines.
-
As the scene froze on the third "Yunqin" hovering in midair, her Abyssal aura so crushing it distorted the sea's surface.
"Holy shit, holy shit! A third Yunqin? Is this a high-quality replica the Abyss cobbled together?!"
"Stop the hate, you in front! This aura is more than ten times more terrifying than the previously corrupted Yunqin! I'm getting goosebumps!"
"Hydro Qin was the Hydro God just now, and now we have a pure Abyss version... Screenwriter, tell me, just how many pieces has Yunqin been split into?!"
"Look closely! This new Yunqin is different from the previous two! Has the Abyss purified Yunqin's obsession into the ultimate weapon?!"
"Stop the angst, you talking about purification! I thought we were going to save her when I saw the Vision recognize its master, but then another one shows up!"
"Hydro Qin is still lying right there! Three Yunqins in one frame... my brain is melting from this!"
"Is it possible... that this black-dressed Yunqin is the Abyss's true trump card? Were the previous Hydro Qin and corrupted Yunqin just decoys?"
"The commenter above is right! Hydra is already out of commission, Beisht is pinned down, and now this Yunqin is released... Is Osial about to be unleashed?!"
"Can any experts analyze this? Who's stronger: this pure Abyssal Yunqin or the previous Exalted Abyssal Moon God Yunqin?"
"Who cares! Let's observe a three-second moment of silence for Liyue... Today's plot is probably going to absolutely destroy all Yunqin fans!"
In front of the live stream, Lu Nanqing's fingers were still frozen on the keyboard.
On the screen, the third "Yunqin" had just suspended in midair, and the Abyssal aura that could distort the sea's surface seemed to burst through the screen.
Lu Nanqing suddenly leaned back, and her gaming chair made a sharp, piercing "creak," even knocking her headset half-askew.
"Wait... Screenwriter, have you gone too far?" Her eyes were like magnets stuck to the screen, her pupils slightly dilated, her tone filled with unbelievable horror, "One second ago, I saw the Vision recognize its master and thought Yunqin could be saved, how did another one just pop up?"
Lu Nanqing raised her hand to rub her eyes, her fingertips brushing the fine lines at the corners of her eyes, then leaned closer to the screen to repeatedly confirm.
The eerie black light shimmering on the dark dress, the pure black eyes without pupils, and the pressure that even distorted the air: every detail was tearing her last shred of hope to pieces.
At that moment, the densely packed comments in the bullet chat area scrolled across the screen like a waterfall, the multicolored text nearly obscuring the game footage.
Lu Nanqing's peripheral vision caught keywords like "Ultimate Weapon" and "Killing Machine," and the corner of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.
She controlled Lumine to take half a step back, the camera first focusing on the unconscious Hydro Qin on the sea's surface. The transparent Hydro Element protective film was still shimmering with a faint light, her long hair floating gently with the seabed.
Then she abruptly switched the view back to the black-dressed "Yunqin," her tone laced with a helplessness that was about to break: "The worst part is that all three of them look exactly the same!"