Chapter 172: The Fourth Vision

The Wind Dragon's problem has been resolved.

According to the agreement with Venti, the Wind God's Gnosis now belongs to Luo De.

That's right.

Venti no longer wants his own Gnosis.

To be honest.

When Luo De heard those words 'I'm giving it to you,' his cerebellum truly shrank a bit.

He knew the gods don't really care about the Gnosis.

After all, the Seven Archons didn't become the Seven Archons because of the Gnosis.

But rather, because they are the Seven Archons, they possess the Gnosis as a symbol of their status.

In other words.

Whether or not they have a Gnosis.

For the Seven Archons, at most they'd lose the power boost from the Gnosis; it wouldn't affect the mighty power they inherently bear.

But Luo De never expected that Venti would be so indifferent as to casually give away his Gnosis.

"I'm really just borrowing it."

"I'll return it after I'm done using it."

Luo De reiterated his idea, emphasizing that it was not a taking but a borrowing.

However, Venti's answer remained the same as before.

"Keeping this thing is useless for me and it always attracts covetousness; I might as well give it to you~~~"

"Hehe."

Venti hehe-laughed, waved goodbye to Luo De, and slipped away without looking back, not the slightest attachment to the Gnosis.

There was nothing to be done about his attitude.

Helpless, Luo De could only tuck this Gnosis into his pocket and head to Jingfu Port.

Just as when he came.

He still planned to walk to Jingfu Port on his own two legs.

After all, the dragon disaster had just ended; the road from Mondstadt City to Jingfu Port was mostly in a state of disrepair, and monsters still roamed the wilderness unchecked.

As a thank-you for resolving the dragon disaster.

When Luo De was leaving.

Besides granting him the title of Honorary Knight, Qin also gave him a set of the current Windrise Knightly Swordsmanship tradition of the Knights of Favonius, though only the swordsmanship, not the dual‑hand swordsmanship, spear technique, or archery.

Then Qin sent Scout Knight Amber as a guide to accompany Luo De to Jingfu Port, also tasking her with recording the situation along the way and acting as a messenger to recall the scouting team.

Don't think that Qin's gift is only an empty title and a set of swordsmanship.

But this is already all she can do.

The swordsmanship of the Knights of Favonius is a secret not to be passed on; even someone like Ying, who likewise earned the Honorary Knight title for defeating the Wind Dragon, cannot receive such a gift.

Luo De being able to obtain a set of swordsmanship is already an extraordinary grant from Qin.

And compared to granting a set of swordsmanship.

The many green lights Qin opened for him are far more practical.

Under her direction.

Luo De obtained many commodities that Mondstadt normally restricts from export, and he also reached an academic cooperation agreement with Mondstadt in the name of the Dendro Archon, Buer.

This is also another purpose of Luo De's coming to Mondstadt.

Just as he said.

Don't think that Sumeru's mastery of the World Tree lets it laugh at all of Teyvat in academic knowledge; in other countries, there are many things Sumeru needs to learn.

Nadixa greatly agreed with this statement.

So she gave Luo De a directive, a directive allowing him to independently discuss cooperation with Mondstadt.

However, Luo De doesn't understand many professional matters and dares not say much about them.

But in academic cooperation, he reached an agreement for Sumeru and Mondstadt to exchange representatives for study.

He also named names, specially inviting the captain of Mondstadt's investigation team, Aibeduo, to the Sumeru Academy to discuss alchemy.

Speaking of which.

Luo De has not yet met this Aibeduo.

But he knows.

Aibeduo is Mondstadt's Chief Alchemist, apprenticed to the 'Golden' Laiyinduote, a legendary alchemist who was ahead of his time in alchemy.

Furthermore, Aibeduo single‑handedly raised Mondstadt's alchemy level, which was weak to the point of near zero, to a stunning achievement on par with the Sumeru Academy.

As for other aspects.

Luo De's focus was applying to Qin for some technical personnel to go to Sumeru, especially those skilled in windmill workshops.

Actually, in Luo De's view.

Mondstadt's technology tree is not just a bit crooked.

They still use candles and kerosene‑like lamps for lighting at night; even lighting one each evening is no small hassle.

The only thing they can really show off is.

alchemy and brewing techniques.

Relative to that.

This windmill workshop also counts as a decent technique they have.

But unfortunately, Sumeru has better technology.

And the real reason Luo De wanted this windmill.

Because he wanted to see if those people from the Marvelous Theory faction could improve the windmill's technology to more advanced wind power generation.

This matter must start from when Nadixa regained control of the Academy.

Although she had already lifted many restrictions on the desert, theoretically it could install the most advanced energy devices in the desert.

However, the energy technology mastered by the Academy is quite complex, and after so many years of development it has evolved to suit only the rainforest climate and environment, making it difficult to apply to desert regions.

Also.

The progress of exploring Scarlet King technology also turned out to be unexpectedly arduous.

Even though Kantisi opened up the village's stockpile, allowing Academy scholars to go research, after such a long time the results have still been minimal.

Therefore Luo De set his sights on this windmill technology mastered by Mondstadt.

The desert lacks everything.

Except for strong winds and land; if we could truly explore wind power generation technology from it, we could temporarily solve part of the energy bottleneck.

Jean gladly agreed to Luo De's request.

Over the past five hundred years, although the Academy's knowledge has made no progress, their technological level is still very renowned across Teyvat.

In Jean's view.

Being able to achieve academic cooperation with Sumeru.

For Mondstadt, this might be a more advantageous thing.

"Monsters are really numerous."

On the way to Jingfu Port, Amber has been conscientiously recording the conditions of the trade routes along the way, and occasionally she would step in to clear out Hilichurl encampments blocking the road.

The destruction caused by Stormterror is too great.

Especially the fact that the trade route was cut off.

It almost completely destroyed Mondstadt's trade routes, causing the Dawn Winery, a pillar industry, to have difficulty exporting its goods to Jingfu Port; they could only rely on the land route via Stone Gate to transport goods to Liyue to complete the turnover plan.

But land travel is ultimately not as convenient as water travel.

Moreover, due to the special terrain of Stone Gate, the amount of cargo that can be transported at once is extremely limited, and its capacity is far inferior to the water transport via Jingfu Port.

Therefore, swiftly restoring the trade route between Mondstadt City and Jingfu Port is an urgent matter.

However, although Amber was busy, she did not delay Luo De's progress in the slightest.

This girl, whose martial arts are ordinary, has an astonishing talent for tracking and investigation; during normal travel she can barely keep up with Luo De's speed, and clearing away blocking monsters is done when Luo De rests, without delaying anything.

On the first night after setting out.

After Amber fell asleep, Luo De, bored, took out the Gnosis given by the white-haired Venti and began to study it repeatedly.

This thing contains great power.

Luo De is very certain of this.

Out of curiosity,

He then, just as he usually does when activating elemental energy, gripped this Gnosis and tried to draw forth its power.

Unexpectedly,

This attempt actually succeeded in drawing out elemental energy from within it.

And it was not just a little bit of power.

Then the Gnosis, dim from losing its master, suddenly burst forth a dazzling emerald-green light, and immediately a gale as fierce as Stormterror's maddened wind rose up centered on Luo De, reaching hurricane-level devastation in the blink of an eye.

Even Amber, who was sound asleep, was suddenly awakened by the commotion outside.

She panicked, ran out of the tent, and then stared wide-eyed at the storm enveloping Luo De.

She had only seen such a spectacle when Stormterror attacked Mondstadt City, never expecting to see it again on Luo De.

She quickly glanced around.

She then decisively ran toward Luo De, the instigator.

Fortunately Luo De was not far away, and her tent was pitched in the eye of the wind; otherwise, when the storm erupted, she would already have been sucked up into the sky.

This storm came quickly and went just as fast.

After realizing he had unintentionally triggered the Gnosis's power, causing massive destruction, Luo De decisively loosened his grip and released his hold on the Gnosis.

The gale that had just been slaughtering all things dissipated in smoke the moment Luo De released his hand.

After the storm dispersed,

Amber, still shaken, was even more astonished.

Looking around at the ground devastated beyond description,

She could hardly believe she had just barely avoided being swept up into that astonishing storm.

And what made her doubt her own eyes even more

was that after the storm abruptly ceased, a sparkling gem suddenly appeared on Luo De's hand.

Vision.

of the wind element.

After Luo De used the wind god's Gnosis, it silently appeared in his hand.

(Last night I suddenly got a terrible headache, couldn't even sit in a chair, went to the hospital and my blood pressure spiked to over 170; the doctor said it was cervical spine compression and nervous weakness, then prescribed some sleep aids and blood pressure meds, but after taking them today my blood pressure is still over 160, the condition hasn't improved much, so I'll need more rest these days and updates may not be as stable as before.)

(End of chapter)