Chapter 220: An Invitation from Snezhnaya

Two days later.

At the entrance to the Chasm, under the guidance of the emissary specially dispatched by Ningguang, the Sumeru scholar team that Luo De belonged to met face-to-face with the Lady and Childe.

This was no coincidence.

But it was the Lady's request to Ningguang.

That is, as long as Luo De set out, she would set out together with him.

The Snezhnaya side also had only the two of them, with no Fatui soldiers accompanying them.

Upon meeting,

Tartaglia, who originally neither he nor the Lady had looked at each other, burst out laughing and came over.

"Hey, friend, long time no see~~"

He didn't care at all about his comrades' saying 'losing face', cheerfully darting straight into Luo De's team, leaving the Lady all by herself off to the side.

As for Tartaglia,

Luo De is a strong opponent he could fight, and they have no conflicting positions yet—that's enough.

"Long time no see."

Luo De also replied with a smile, then asked: "Are you here specifically to find me this time?"

"Not really?"

Tartaglia said sincerely: "I'm here to be Rosaline's bodyguard."

He said while speaking.

He stroked his chin and said: "Your Majesty the Queen, what do you call this? Joint, scientific expedition? Ah, you scholars' professional terms are really too complicated; I can't make sense of them. Anyway, the meaning is like this: let's go together, and by the way, pick up that unit still left underground."

Joint scientific expedition.

This is the reason why the Lady and her group are traveling with Luo De this time.

This is also why the Lady insists on wearing that Academy outfit from several hundred years ago.

Scientific expedition, scientific expedition.

Without a proper scholar's identity, such a cooperative relationship cannot be achieved.

That's precisely for this reason.

The Lady directly pulled out her title as an outstanding graduate of the Academy, regardless of whether her degree certificate is from five hundred years ago.

The Academy's degree certificate has no expiration date.

Knowing that is enough.

The Lady's degree and Luo De's Tighnari are the same Darshan, a very standard Academy scholar identity, not as intimidating as Mahadeva, but still sufficient.

The scholar team that Sumeru dispatched this time.

Besides some practical fighters without degrees among the forest rangers, everyone else also holds a Darshan.

Nadixa places great importance on this cooperation.

Not to mention scholars like Epiclesy, she didn't even send any apprentice Darshan.

Considering the Lady's Darshan identity,

After much hesitation, Nadixa chose to forgo sending a Mahadeva; otherwise, such a large troupe would at the very least need to dispatch a renowned Mahadeva to oversee and coordinate.

Mahadeva cannot come.

Instead, Cyno, whose prestige among the scholars is no less than that of a Mahadeva, comes.

Of course.

Rather than saying it's prestige, it's more like notoriety.

In the mouths of Sumeru scholars, Cyno's infamy is not much better than Luo De's notoriety in the desert.

Even some scholars have reached the point where they change color at the mention of his name.

If it weren't for being beaten up by Luo De, which dealt a heavy blow to his confidence, he would have rarely cracked cold jokes with people, and his reputation would be even more fearsome.

Tartaglia's mission this time.

Is exactly what he said: to be the Lady's bodyguard.

Having the Last Seat's executive officer act as bodyguard for the Eighth Seat sounds somewhat comical.

However, this can be seen as the Snezhnaya Queen putting an extra safeguard on the Lady.

The executive officers indeed prefer to act alone.

Especially, the Lady and Childe's personalities are extremely incompatible.

Being able to make the two of them act together.

All that can be said is that the Ice Queen worries that, given the Lady's personality and her level of hostility toward the Abyss, if she were to go underground alone, she might cause some trouble.

As for Tartaglia,

This guy's combat ability is indeed inferior to the Lady's.

But his body has extremely high resistance to Abyssal corrosion.

Put simply,

Tartaglia can wander into the Dead Zone without using elemental energy.

This ability is not something just anyone has.

Back then, even someone as experienced as Tighnari could almost be killed on the spot by the Dead Zone without elemental protection.

Thus, one can see how useful this special ability of Tartaglia is in the underground mining areas where Abyssal power runs rampant.

In Luo De's judgment,

The Ice Queen likely had Tartaglia accompany the Lady because, in situations where Abyssal power concentration is very high, the power Tartaglia can unleash could surpass that of the Lady without releasing her Blazing Witch form.

"You two, cut the chatter."

Lady stepped forward to interrupt Luo De and Dadaliliya's small talk; amid the curious gazes of the scholars, she openly joined the team, saying: 'It's time to set off.'

Just wait a moment.

Luo De did not do as she said; instead, he turned and walked toward several stone towers some distance from the entrance.

They were called stone towers.

In fact, they were just piles of stone made from a few boulders.

The tallest was about a person's height, and the favorite was even lower than knee height.

These stone piles looked old at a glance, yet neatly arranged before them were fresh flowers, fruits, and other offerings, along with unextinguished candles.

Luo De walked to the stone mortar, observed Liyue's custom, kept silent for a minute, then offered the unnoticeable offerings to those who seemed insignificant to onlookers.

His offering was very simple.

In front of each stone pile stood a current-model long spear of the Thousand Rock Army, sent by Ningguang, all new; as for whether they'd be lost, judging by the patrol density of the Thousand Rock Army around here, no one would dare to steal their standard weapons.

After doing all that,

He bowed again, then returned to the team.

'Who were you just bowing to?'

Everyone here is not stupid; at a glance one can see that beneath the pile of rubble lies a grave, possibly even a cenotaph.

Thus not only Dadaliliya

Others were also curious.

Why would someone from Sumeru come to Liyue to worship this nameless cenotaph?

However, before Luo De could answer,

The Lady, who had just been wearing a look of impatience, suddenly changed expression and followed the path Luo De had taken to the cenotaph.

She performed the same actions as Luo De.

She also first kept silent, then offered her offerings—several bottles of her favorite liquor.

'Those buried here are the people who died in the Disaster of Darkness.'

Luo De explained slowly to the puzzled crowd.

At the same time, his gaze toward the Lady flickered slightly.

'The soldiers who died here?'

Upon hearing this, everyone present immediately grew solemn.

'Yes, but not entirely.'

'Five hundred years ago, when Liyue's Geo Archon was absent, under the leadership of the Guardian Yaksha Tengshe Grand Marshal, Liyue's Thousand Rock Army and sorcerers used themselves as bait, drawing all the rampant monsters into the Abyssal Maw, and sealed themselves together with the monsters underground.'

'Later generations wanted to honor these selfless heroes who gave their lives, but could not find a single corpse, so they could only erect a cenotaph here to commemorate those who perished in the Disaster of Darkness.'

Luo De let out a long sigh, recalling the stories Zhongli had told him before he came, and gazing toward Liyue, he said: 'Leaning against the mountain, facing the homeland—this was the only thing they did before sacrificing themselves.'

His words fell.

Dadaliliya's steps moved first.

He is indeed an Executive Officer.

But before becoming an Executive Officer, he was also a member of the Snezhnayan army, a soldier who had long fought monsters.

Thus he could empathize more with those heroes who died for their homeland.

After him,

Others also proceeded in order to pay respects to the cenotaph; having made no preparations, they simply placed whatever they had on hand.

When everyone had returned, the area before the cenotaph was already filled with offerings.

Afterward, amidst the salute of the Thousand Rock Army guarding the site,

The 'scientific expedition' team jointly formed by Liyue and Snezhnaya, under the guidance of their guide, arrived beside the elevator to the underground mine.

Before descending into the mine,

necessary preparations still needed to be made.

Luminescent stone lamps that can illuminate the underground and solidify black mud, canaries to test for toxic gases in the underground air, emergency food and water, a detailed map of the underground mining area, and various miscellaneous precautions.

After everything had been explained clearly,

Luo De then led the way onto the elevator, amid the rumbling of the gears, and descended straight into the deep, dark cavern.

There were too many people.

Not too many could go down at once.

As the first batch to descend into the mine, facing the highest risk, Luo De, Cyno, Tighnari, the Lady, and Dadaliliya were all in this team.

From the surface to the disaster-stricken underground mining area, the straight-line distance is no less than a kilometer; the elevator descends slowly, and moreover, everyone is reluctant to speak because of the gloomy, oppressive atmosphere.

Feeling somewhat oppressed, Luo De simply leapt out of the elevator, relying on his ability to fly, and plunged straight down.

The lower he went,

the darker it became ahead; Luo De unfurled his Night Raven Wings, using the specks of light from elemental energy to illuminate the forward passage.

Soon,

he saw the ground, then retracted his wings and landed smoothly.

After pulling out the map for reference,

Luo De confirmed that the place he was now in was precisely the accident site of the underground mining area.

'Sniff—'

After inhaling twice, the familiar scent around him made Luo De involuntarily show a comfortable expression.

Before coming, he had already made expectations.

But he had never imagined it.

The Abyssal power here is actually this dense.

At this entrance, which theoretically should have the thinnest Abyssal power, the Abyssal power it contains has already reached a level capable of hurting mortals.

Fortunately, there's the Lumine Stone.

Luo De pouted and said.

However, the Lumine Stone is prepared for ordinary people who cannot resist Abyssal power.

For Luo De,

Such a concentration of Abyssal power is just right.

While the elevator hasn't descended yet,

Luo De spread his arms and took a deep breath.

In an instant,

The Abyssal power pent up at the entrance seemed to have found a breach, surging wildly toward Luo De's body, and in just a moment, Luo De had completely devoured it.

So comfortable.

The satisfied Luo De patted his stomach and let out a long, relaxed exhale.

At first,

At first, Luo De could only sense an increase in elemental energy when devouring Abyssal power.

I don't know when it started,

Each time he finished devouring the Abyssal power, he would inexplicably feel a sense of fullness.

And this wasn't an illusion.

but rather it made him feel as if he had truly eaten his fill, his body brimming with inexhaustible strength.

In other words,

As long as he is in this underground mine where Abyssal power seeps everywhere, Luo De does not need to rely on rations and water like others.

Such a peculiarity,

Luo De's explanation is simply the nature of elemental beings.

Given his bodily structure,

Referring to Dvalin, which can go five hundred years without eating or drinking, merely sleeping, after confirming that his essence is that of an elemental being, Luo De believes he too should be capable of this.

You really are special.

Just as Luo De was holding the Lumine Stone lantern and looking around the surroundings, the lady's voice echoed faintly from behind him.

Regarding the lady's sudden appearance,

Luo De wasn't the slightest bit surprised; he continued to compare the map and check the surroundings, merely replying offhand: "Are the two senior brothers you threw at me and your colleagues just for this matter?"

Hmph—

Hearing the faint hum of the machinery, the lady had no intention of wasting words with Luo De and spoke again: "Her Majesty the Ice Queen has entrusted me to tell you: are you interested in joining the Fatui, becoming an Executive, and working together for Her Majesty the Queen's lofty ideal?"

Luo De's hand paused, he furrowed his brows and said: "You didn't travel thousands of miles to chase me here just for this?"

Yes.

The lady readily agreed.

Hearing this answer,

Luo De stopped exploring the mine, turned around, locked eyes with the lady, and asked solemnly, word by word: "What if I refuse?"

The Fatui have no habit of forcing others to join.

The lady chuckled: "Her Majesty merely feels it a waste for someone like you to be under the Dendro Archon, that good-for-nothing; better to defect to Snezhnaya, where you'll have a greater chance to put your talents to use."

Oh?

So I should also thank Her Majesty the Ice God for her discerning eye?

Luo De wasn't angry, just keeping his composure as he said: "Go tell your queen, I won't agree."

That wasn't an unexpected answer.

The lady's expression unchanged, she said: "Her Majesty the Queen said you'll eventually agree."

So confident?

Now it was Luo De's turn to be surprised: "What's the reason?"

Because Her Majesty the Queen's ideal is the most lofty will in the world.

Only by following Her Majesty the Queen can you truly see the world's absurdity and indifference, and truly rewrite that damned heavenly principle.

The lady's voice grew ever more fervent, as if the Ice Queen's ideal were the sole truth of this world.

Especially when she spoke of the 'damned heavenly principle'.

Even her black mask could not hide the ferocious expression born of her anger, as if she wanted to devour the heavenly principle that loftily resides above the heavens; even Luo De couldn't help but be moved.

However,

Such zealotry had no effect on Luo De.

He still lightly shook his head and said: "Sorry, I still have no intention of joining the Fatui for now; as for whether I'll change my mind later, we'll see when the time comes."

Ignorant.

Luo De's answer dissatisfied the lady, but she also realized her recruitment attempt had failed; she left with the words 'Hope you won't regret today's decision in the future,' then fell silent, sinking into darkness.

(End of chapter)