Chapter 291: The Wonderful Uses of World Tree Leaves

Do you have any misunderstanding about me?

Or rather.

Did you receive any false information?

Luo De understood Yae Miko's request.

It is to preserve Huasanli's remnant soul, so she won't completely dissipate after the Sacred Sakura Purification.

So Luo De must give a proper explanation for himself.

I don't know who you heard this from.

But I need to make it clear to you: I only preserved a fragment of one person's soul, and that's because we share the same origin and have the ability to coexist.

This person.

Luo De pursed his lips and spoke frankly: "I'm unable to do anything."

Huasanli is a very special existence.

Don't be fooled by her body reshaped by a misunderstanding of the Abyss; essentially, she is roughly an Abyssal monster.

But her consciousness originates from that person who, five hundred years ago, actively sacrificed themselves for Inazuma—the Guuji, who was also a close friend of Lei Dianying and a close clansperson of Yae Miko.

And the final result of the Sacred Sakura Purification will surely cleanse all Abyssal corruption in Inazuma.

As a gathering of Abyssal corruption, Huasanli is naturally within the scope of purification.

In other words.

If no external force intervenes, Huasanli is destined to vanish completely after the Sacred Sakura Purification.

This is the same as the Great Merciful Tree King, who suffered Abyssal corruption that spread to the World Tree.

At that time, the Great Merciful Tree King was in the same situation.

To cleanse the Abyssal corruption, one must erase her last trace in Teyvat.

But now the situation is different from then.

Although the Great Merciful Tree King back then was also in a mortal state, deep in her soul lay a contingency left by the Flower God.

But Huasanli has no one who left her a contingency.

However, Luo De has already explained this quite clearly.

Yet Yae Miko still insists on her previous request, and forcibly stuffed Orobas's power into Luo De, saying: "This is a down payment; after the task is completed, I will give further thanks."

No.

Luo De held a hot potato in his hand, unable to throw it away or keep it.

At this moment.

He finally witnessed the might of the Electro Archon's retinue.

Just now he truly couldn't refuse.

Physically, he couldn't refuse.

This seemingly weak fox girl had astonishing strength; Luo De couldn't break free and was forced to accept this so-called down payment.

What if I can't do what you said?

Luo De, who truly couldn't refuse, could only ask helplessly.

He truly had no confidence in this matter at all.

Yae Miko also didn't provide any medium for preserving Huasanli's consciousness; she simply insisted that he, while carrying out the Sacred Sakura Purification, incidentally help preserve Huasanli's consciousness.

Mm—

Like that.

Then there's nothing we can do.

We can only take back the reward originally prepared for you.

Yae Miko spread her hands helplessly and, with a complaining tone, said: "Alas, what a pity—originally Ying had recovered a Calamity Eye from that troublesome hand, intending to find it a new successor."

Trouble?

Calamity Eye?

Although Luo De knew Yae Miko was tempting him to think of a solution, he still couldn't help inquiring about it.

Oh?

You don't know?

That's right; you're not familiar with Inazuma, so it's normal not to know.

After finding a justification for herself, Yae Miko smiled and said: "Although Ying always says she can't bear to harm her own creations, knowing full well that fellow has become a trouble, even if you solve it she might still be a bit angry, but no matter what, creating that fellow used many good things—for example, the Calamity Eye recovered from his body, which is a fine thing made imitating Ying's combat style; as long as it absorbs sufficient elemental energy in battle, it can grant you the ability called Calamity Shadow Heavenly Devil."

Having said that.

After rubbing her chin and thinking seriously, Yae Miko gave Luo De an extremely tempting explanation: "The alias of Calamity Shadow Heavenly Devil is Calamity God; it has the same hand-eye divine perception as Ying, able to unleash a slash in an instant upon sight, and moreover."

Alright, don't say more.

I'll think of a way, okay?

Luo De couldn't hold back and raised his hand to stop Yae Miko.

He indeed didn't want to be led by the nose by Yae Miko.

But the fact is, not letting her lead him is also impossible.

What the heck is this Calamity Eye?

If Yae Miko isn't lying.

This thing, put another way, is an Electro Archon simulator; as long as you give it enough time or inject sufficient elemental energy, its effect lets one temporarily wield the Electro Archon's might.

In terms of practicality.

This Calamity Eye is even more tempting than the Rock Dragon Crown.

And Yae Miko simply had to deceive herself about this.

That is to say.

As long as Luo De can preserve the remnant soul of Hua Sanli, Yae Miko will indeed give him this Evil Eye.

As for the original owner of the Evil Eye, Sanbing.

Upon thinking this.

Luo De frowned and asked, "You said that thing was recovered from Sanbing's body? I never saw him use it."

Because he's not qualified enough.

Yae Miko narrowed her eyes: "You don't really think a single human can break Shadow's seal, do you? Or do you think a puppet made to replace Shadow, sitting in the general's position, would be nothing more than a mere sixth seat if its power were fully unsealed?"

Huh?

Luo De's mouth slightly opened.

Yae Miko's answer caught him somewhat off guard.

Judging by her words.

The so-called Doctor who supposedly unsealed all of Sanbing's seals was just bragging, right?

And if the true Sanbing were fully unsealed,

Would his power be more than just a sixth seat?

Little brat.

Don't underestimate Shadow.

Shadow is not only strong in combat; in the research of forging, sealing, and puppet arts, she is likewise the pinnacle of existence in all of Teyvat.

Yae Miko murmured: "That troublemaker has released less than half of its power."

Luo De didn't know how the already-annihilated Sanbing would feel hearing this, but he found it both laughable and exasperating.

No wonder.

He had always thought he was the Raiden Shogun's first unit, but Sanbing lacking god-level power was fine; yet the supposed divine-forged body matching god-level strength didn't match his physical toughness.

Now looking at it.

He simply hadn't fully broken the seal, and then believed the Doctor's lies, thinking his seal was already fully undone.

If this guy properly studied his own body, he'd be a god-level being.

But he insisted on going down the wrong path.

No time to mourn Sanbing, tormented by the Doctor's PUA; having cleared his doubts, Luo De agreed to Yae Miko's request.

No matter what.

Even if it's just for this Evil Eye, he must figure out how to preserve Hua Sanli's consciousness.

After striking a deal with Yae Miko,

Luo De, lost in thought, returned to his residence.

After spouting nonsense at the Kamisato household, he now rare ly finds some peace.

Taking advantage of this time.

He contacted Nadixa and the Great Merciful Tree King, told them about his agreement with Yae Miko, and asked if they had any way.

Who would have known.

The question had just been asked.

The answer came right away.

Don't you have a leaf of the World Tree?

As long as, when that person you mentioned dissipates, you contain their uncontaminated consciousness in a World Tree leaf, that's enough.

The speaker was the Great Merciful Tree King.

She seemed busy with something, her surroundings noisy, her speech very fast, as if in a hurry.

A World Tree leaf?

Luo De froze for a moment.

He indeed had a World Tree leaf, and during his time in the Stratified Rock Deep Abyss, that leaf merged into his body, granting him the ability to dispel falsehood.

Originally Luo De thought the World Tree leaf only had that ability.

Who would have thought it also had the function of containing souls and consciousness.

The World Tree contains the information and fate of everyone in Teyvat.

Its leaf itself possesses the strongest containment ability.

Nadixa took over, continuing: "Open your Void Terminal permissions; I'll upload a user manual. Isn't Thousand Night Floating Dream also in your hand? It contains my power—correctly using Thousand Night Floating Dream will activate the World Tree leaf's containment ability."

Why didn't you say this before?

Having come to his senses, Luo De asked with a strange expression.

You didn't ask either.

Containing souls is troublesome; you don't usually encounter such things, so I didn't think to mention it.

The Great Merciful Tree King and Nadixa exchanged words.

In short.

It's just pushing onto him the problem of Luo De not knowing how to use the World Tree leaf.

Fine.

Having successfully received the instructions, Luo De no longer contested.

As long as there's a way, that's fine.

It's better than having no way.

At the very least.

That Evil Star Eye now has a destination.

Luo De, in high spirits, closed the communication and began to flip through the usage instructions transmitted by Nadixa.

After reading it once, he roughly knew what to do.

Generally speaking.

The operation isn't particularly difficult.

It's just troublesome.

Moreover, the main trouble is that it requires permission granted by the Dendro Archon.

Fortunately, Luo De's body is formed from spiritual light, and the permission granted when the Flower God once shared the Dendro Archon's position still remains; now he only needs to hold the Chiyo Floating Dream, using the Dendro Archon's power stored within by Nadixa, to unlock the containment capacity of the World Tree's leaves.

"Completely blank World Tree leaves."

While browsing the usage instructions, Luo De noticed a sentence mentioned therein.

The general meaning is that the containment capacity is not present on every World Tree leaf.

Only completely blank World Tree leaves that bear no information can achieve this.

Otherwise,

Forcibly inserting a piece of information into a normal World Tree leaf will cause partial information on the World Tree to become disordered.

"This thing is not easy to come by."

Following the method in the usage instructions, Luo De focused his spirit, seeking the location of the leaf that had already merged with him.

Soon.

His consciousness sank into a chaos.

This was Luo De's first time arriving at his own consciousness world.

After all, his spiritual power used to be insufficient.

It was solely due to the integration of the World Tree leaf that his spiritual power gained a layer of protection.

And Luo De truly saw how fragile his original spiritual power was.

Back when the Great Merciful Tree King's consciousness was about to fade, the consciousness space she constructed could rival a brand-new world, even being able to perfectly replicate the existence of the World Tree and the Vessel of Consciousness.

In contrast, Luo De.

Although his strength has reached Archon level, his mental world is merely a simple space that can be penetrated at a glance, lacking any strong protective force, and its end is visible at a glance.

The sole protection.

Is the World Tree sapling within this space that resembles the one in the Great Merciful Tree King's consciousness space.

Hmm.

A very slender little sapling.

Roughly speaking,

it's not even as thick as a branch seen back then in the Great Merciful Tree King's consciousness space.

Yet this slender sapling emits an awe-inspiring majesty and a reassuring protective power that one cannot bear to look directly at.

"So you're here."

Luo De gently rubbed the sole leaf on the sapling.

Although some time has passed.

but he could still recognize it.

This is the leaf that Nadixa and the Great Merciful Tree King gave him back then.

Who would have thought that after fusing with him, it would grow in his consciousness space into such a sapling with its protective capacity maxed out.

"Positioning complete."

"Imprint."

"All right."

Luo De, following the introduction in the usage instructions, imprinted the name Huasanli onto the sapling's leaf.

This is roughly equivalent to creating a blank document on the World Tree leaf under his control.

Later, he only needs to send Huasanli's residual consciousness along the previously traced path to the World Tree leaf and store it in this imprint.

In the future, if he needs to use that fragment of consciousness, he can simply take it as needed, which is far safer than Apep's treacherous elemental crystal.

Actually, Luo De originally wanted to imprint the name Huozhai Gong.

But after a brief hesitation, he still decided to use the name Huasanli.

Although Huasanli appeared carrying the memories of Huozhai Gong.

But in Luo De's view,

the departed are gone.

Huozhai Gong died five hundred years ago.

The one who now inherits her will is Huasanli.

Moreover,

When Yae Miko asked him to preserve Huasanli's consciousness, she used the name Huasanli, not Huozhai Gong.

So Luo De felt that Huasanli should continue living under her own name, and Huozhai Gong—let the past stay in the past.

"Done."

Having done all that, Luo De's consciousness returned to reality; after moving his limbs a bit, he once again hurried straight to the Divine Sound Grand Shrine.

Now everything is ready; all that remains is to complete the Divine Cherry Blossom Great Purification, and then he can fulfill his promise with Yae Miko and obtain that Eye of the Evil Star.

(End of chapter)