Chapter 165: The Dark Knight's Night Visit

Returned to the ground.

Paimon, who had been worried for a long time, suddenly flung herself into Ying's embrace, sobbing: "Why did you take so long to come back? I thought something had happened to you."

"Sorry, I made you worry."

Ying stroked Paimon's head, gently comforting her.

Here, they comforted each other, feeling warm and content.

Meanwhile, on the other side,

Luo De and Wen Di's situation, however, was completely reversed.

"I told you not to be like this."

"You also know how big Te Walin's body is; my strike at most just made a hole in him, affecting nothing."

What's more,

When he entered, Qin was still holding a meeting, assigning various tasks to the knights stationed in the city, including but not limited to disaster relief, consolation, building temporary shelters, and distributing disaster relief food.

It was only when he came before Ying.

Therefore, the fact that Luo De shattered a large chunk of Abyssal poison blood is actually a good thing.

Compared to physical pain, for Te Walin, mental anguish is obviously much harder for him to endure.

Several people then arrived at the captain's office.

What Luo De said was also very reasonable.

It's the same now.

Wen Di and Luo De also happened to think the same way.

At least Te Walin's mental burden has lessened considerably.

Luo De patted Wen Di on the shoulder and pursed his lips forward.

They organized personnel to go to various parts of Mondstadt City for disaster relief, while also sending people to find Luo De and Ying.

Soon.

It used to be like this.

This matter did have some eyewitnesses.

However, she did not stay by Kaeya's side; instead, she stayed by Luo De's side, looking at him as if afraid he would break his promise and not take her to find the Wind God.

Wen Di even faintly regretted, regretting that she should not have lent her wind elemental energy to Luo De.

"I never expected that the two of you would have such formidable combat power."

"Alright."

Although ordinary people couldn't see the battle in the sky, when the initial low-altitude combat began, some people still saw Luo De and Ying, who later flew up to help.

The Wind Dragon was repelled.

"Without the torment of poison blood, it will be easier for you to soothe him with the Skyward Harp."

He then invited Ying to go together to the West Wind Knights for a chat.

"Don't put on a mournful face; the West Wind Knights have arrived."

Kaeya generously praised them, walking and clapping for Luo De and Ying.

He still played to his strengths, asking several questions in succession.

All things considered,

But think about it again.

Wen Di couldn't help but feel a mix of laughter and tears.

Can this barely be counted as good news?

Isn't the Abyss Mage able to successfully deceive him into becoming an enemy of Mondstadt precisely because he cannot withstand this mental torment?

After everything had been said,

After listening to Luo De's words,

"You said you would help purify Te Walin's poison blood, so you just purified his poison blood, but you directly punched a hole in him—what is that supposed to be?"

Luo De's skill at comforting people has always been lacking.

The person who came was still an acquaintance.

The West Wind Knights acted quickly.

The usual routine: first ask for identity and name, then ask what they came to Mondstadt for, and finally praise Ying once more.

Ying did not refuse.

Luo De stood aside and listened for a while.

After hearing these words, Wen Di's expression was almost in tears.

It must be said,

Qin's personal ability is indeed very strong.

Although in terms of personal combat strength, she is indeed somewhat lacking compared to the epithet 'South Wind Lion,' but in handling state affairs, she is extraordinarily experienced—so experienced that it's hard to believe she is only nineteen years old.

This left Luo De unsure whether to complain that Qin's personal ability is tough enough, or to say that Fa Er Jia, this grand master's right-hand man, is doing a good job.

After the meeting ended,

All the squad captains had left, and only then did Qin make time to speak with Luo De and the others.

Before speaking,

She first drank a cup of thick coffee.

Luo De took a sniff.

From his experience in researching potions, this cup of coffee definitely had at least three packets of coffee grounds poured in, and with no sugar added, the flavor was so strong it almost irritated the nose.

Keqin, however, seemed unfazed; she downed half a cup in one gulp, her spirits slightly lifted, and she thanked Luo De and Ying: "Thank you both for your help just now."

Having said that,

She then turned to Ying: "Mondstadt welcomes you, the Traveler who comes on the wind, but I'm truly sorry that you encountered such a thing as soon as you arrived in Mondstadt."

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Ying,

Qin then looked at Luo De and said: "Mr. Luo De, this Miss Ying is the Traveler you mentioned earlier, right?"

Hmm.

She is the helper I invited, though she arrived a bit late.

Luo De silently assigned Ying an identity.

"Hey, when did you invite Ying?"

"We obviously just

Before Paimon could finish her sentence, Ying covered her mouth with one hand, gesturing with her eyes for her not to speak further.

Qin naturally could also see that Luo De was talking nonsense, purely to give Ying a reasonable identity.

However, she said nothing, merely nodding: "In that case, I can rest easy."

Having said that,

She then took out a dulled, ancient wooden lute.

It is a six-stringed lyre made of rosewood, with star-metal strings, symmetrical floral decorations on both sides of the curved wood, and a green gemstone set in the middle of the curved wood.

"Sky harp~~~"

Venti happily took the Sky harp from Qin's hands, gently caressing this wooden lyre he had played for a thousand years, dispelling the gloom from Tevalin's severe injury, and he said to himself: "The rosewood with flowing wind patterns, the cool star-metal strings—what a nostalgic feeling."

"How about it? Can we use it to summon the East Wind Dragon?"

Qin asked, eyes full of anticipation.

Among the current ways to deal with the East Wind Dragon, this is the one that best suits her wishes, so what she most hopes for now is Venti answering that one word 'can'.

However, to her disappointment, Venti shook his head and said: "It's a pity; although this is truly the Wind God's supreme treasure, it probably still won't work."

He said,

Venti plucked a string.

The sound remained clear and pleasant, but it lacked some spirit, far inferior to the lyre he currently uses.

"As you can see, after a thousand years, the power of the wind has long been exhausted."

"With the Sky harp in this state, wanting to communicate with Tevalin is still far from enough."

"However."

"The problem isn't the harp itself, but the strings."

Venti then took out Tevalin's tear crystal from his hand and personally demonstrated to everyone how to replenish the Sky harp with wind elemental energy.

And after seeing that the purified tear crystal actually had such an effect,

Ying also took out her own tear crystal and applied it to the Sky harp as well.

The infusion of the two tear crystals caused this originally dull wooden lyre to instantly regain part of its former brilliance, transforming it from a mundane rosewood lyre into a divine artifact radiating holy light and elemental energy.

"It's still a little short of overflowing."

"Captain Qin still needs to go collect some more of Tevalin's tear crystals~~~"

The Sky harp regained its brilliance, Venti was very happy, but for him, the Sky harp at this point is still far from sufficient.

Just as he finished saying that.

Luo De immediately pulled out a handful of tear crystals, all of them already purified.

Now not only the others in the room, but even Venti was somewhat taken aback.

"Where did you get all these tear crystals?"

Paimon, who had been listening nearby for a while, asked curiously.

"Just now I beat Tevalin until he cried."

That was an answer that left everyone speechless.

Including Ying.

At that moment, her attention was wholly absorbed by Luo De's act of devouring the poison blood crystal, and she truly didn't notice when he had collected these tear crystals.

"Is that enough?"

Luo De asked Venti.

"Enough."

When replying, Venti himself didn't know what he was feeling.

Anyway, it's quite complicated.

I never expected Tevalin to actually be brought to tears by Luo De, shedding so many tears.

"Alas—"

He let out a soft sigh, and the conflicted Venti poured all the wind elemental energy from these tear crystals into the Sky harp.

One could see that the Sky harp, which had just been faintly glowing, instantly became dazzling, making it impossible to look away.

"The wind elemental energy has already overflowed to a lively degree, so there's no problem."

With Venti's confirmation, the Sky harp was finally confirmed to be at a usable level.

Then the next problem.

Namely, what time and where to go to summon Tevalin, and then use a melody to soothe his emotions.

"Tevalin just suffered a serious injury; now it's estimated he can't be summoned."

"Based on my understanding of him."

These injuries will probably take him three days to heal; let's go when the time comes, uh, to Starfall Cliff—the sea breeze there can let my singing carry farther.

Wen Di's idea received unanimous approval.

Afterward.

Under Qin's suggestion, the Skyward Lyre continued to be kept by her in the safest captain's office, to be taken out only when needed.

After all matters had been fully discussed.

Seeing that Qin still had many things to attend to, Luo De and the others took their leave first.

After staying in the Knights for a while, by the time Luo De and the others went out, the sky had already become completely dark.

Originally, Luo De intended to fulfill his promise and invite Ying and Paimon to eat honey-glazed carrot fried meat.

But after the few people arrived at the Hunter's Restaurant,

yet they found that this place was temporarily closed today.

And it wasn't just the Hunter's Restaurant.

Because of the commotion caused by Te Walin, the inns and restaurants in the City of Mondstadt were basically all closed, leaving nowhere to find a place to eat.

"If you don't mind, shall I make it myself?"

Really having nowhere to go, Luo De invited Ying and Paimon to his rented house.

"Good, good!"

"I'm about to starve flat; bring out whatever tasty food you have~~"

"As soon as food is mentioned, Paimon becomes more spirited than anyone, agreeing even faster than Ying."

"She agreed."

"Ying then couldn't say anything else, smiling and agreeing."

"After returning to the house,"

Luo De quickly whipped up a few dishes; with few ingredients on hand, he made as much as he could, making the portions as large as possible.

But the few people, accustomed to roughing it, all ate happily.

Especially Paimon.

No one knows how her tiny body could consume so much.

She alone ate almost as much as Luo De, the famous big eater.

Now that the Skyward Lyre is repaired, only one step remains to rescue Te Walin; Wen Di is no longer depressed, and upon feeling inspired, he plucked the lyre and burst into song.

Everyone made a fuss.

It lasted until the late night.

After Luo De tidied up the cups and plates on the table, Ying and the others had each found a spot and were sound asleep.

"Hah—"

Looking at their various unsightly sleeping poses, Luo De shook his head with a smile, then went upstairs, leisurely poured two cups of tea, raised his cup toward the balcony corner and said, "Since you're all here, come out and have a drink."

No response.

It was as if Luo De had just been speaking to thin air.

"Don't force me to drag you out."

Luo De's eyes narrowed slightly, and his voice carried a dangerous aura.

This time.

Finally, there was movement in the darkness.

That was a youth in black clothing, wearing a mask that could cover half his face, with a head of fiery red hair tied behind his head; even through the mask, one could see his complexion was not good.

He was caught spying.

This was obviously not something that would put anyone in a good mood.

For an expert,

this was even more of a frustrating matter.

And when Luo De said, "Di Luke sir, sneaking around someone else's house in the middle of the night is not a good habit," the black-clad youth's pupils contracted.

(End of chapter)