Chapter 302: Piecing, piecing together a puzzle?

Actually, the matter is just that simple.

Luo De first used thunderous means to suppress the interference of the Three Commissions, then went to Sea Guardian Island to convey the Electro Archon's will.

The rebellion incident on Sea Guardian Island was, in effect, completely over.

Sangonomiya Kokomi's final wish to discuss details with Kujou Sara was nothing more than a futile struggle.

Just like that.

Luo De didn't even need to send over what he and Sangonomiya Kokomi had said to Kujou Sara; upon seeing him return, Kujou Sara already knew what to do and what to say.

As for whether the Three Commissions will have any objections to Luo De.

Ridiculous.

Their three families running rampant in Inazuma is already enough.

In Luo De's place.

Especially with the Fox Shrine Palace and Raiden Shogun both in Luo De's hands, those three families dare to provoke Luo De, let alone whether they can afford to offend an Archon-level Luo De; just the possible punishment from the Electro Archon resulting from exposing their funding of the rebellion would be enough for them to bear.

Thinking of this.

Returning to the tent that Kujou Sara had specially arranged for him, Luo De closed his eyes, sank into contemplation, and immersed all his thoughts into his consciousness space.

Just as before.

The thunder manifested by Raiden Shogun still densely covers the forest grown in Huasanli, while in other regions she does not transgress at all, not even a trace of lightning leaking out.

"How exactly should I let you regain consciousness?"

Seeing this situation, Luo De couldn't help but furrow his brows and begin to think.

Just as he had anticipated.

For a deity who truly obtained the Electro Archon's divine seat, the aura of the world beyond in Luo De's will has almost no effect on her.

When Huasanli first came into contact with Luo De's will.

Immediately, signs of erosion and assimilation appeared.

But the thunder manifested from Raiden Shogun's consciousness never showed any change.

As if she herself were rejecting the aura of the world beyond.

This made Luo De somewhat troubled.

He had already received the Electro Archon's remuneration, and thus made a promise to do his utmost to help Raiden Shogun regain consciousness.

Judging from the current situation.

He can't even accomplish the most basic consciousness assimilation.

How could he then talk about helping Raiden Shogun regain consciousness?

"No clue at all."

Luo De, who has recently been studying texts on consciousness, now can't help but feel troubled.

It's not the first time he has come into contact with a deity's consciousness.

The consciousness of the Great Merciful Tree King was something he personally witnessed recovering bit by bit.

But Raiden Shogun's consciousness dissipated too cleanly.

Moreover, the consciousness fragments gathered back are also shattered to pieces; without Huasanli, even if Luo De exerted himself to the utmost, he would not have the ability to accommodate her remnants.

After pondering for a long time.

Luo De decided to try a method.

"Let's see if we can stick these consciousness fragments together."

This idea sounds absurd, and in practice it also lacks any reliability.

Nothing else.

No one in all of Teyvat has ever done this.

Including the Dendro Archon, who is the foremost in consciousness manipulation, has never attempted this.

Luo De, this is also a method of last resort.

Because he knows very well.

Judging from the current situation.

The possibility of Raiden Shogun being contaminated by the world's beyond aura and recovering on her own is almost zero.

If he doesn't help manually, he probably won't have a chance in this lifetime to fulfill his contract with the Electro Archon.

"Huu—"

In his own consciousness space, Luo De's authority is the highest.

Even if a being with mental power sufficient to crush him exists, as long as that being is still a person of Teyvat, they cannot break through this defense constructed from the World Tree's leaves.

As for those outside the world.

Luo De currently knows only one Ying.

And Ying.

Basically, there is no possibility of her breaking into his consciousness to attack him.

Therefore, relatively speaking, Luo De's mind remains in a very relaxed state.

Regarding the upcoming.

The entire Teyvat might be witnessing an unprecedented consciousness splicing operation.

He also isn't overly worried.

Anyway, Raiden Shogun's consciousness fragments are already shattered like this; no matter how they are fiddled with, it won't cause any worse effect.

So then, let's just go all out.

With such a mindset, Luo De's actions also became much bolder.

He first reached into the thunder with bare hands, forcibly pulling two fragments of True Lightning's consciousness from the endless thunderclouds above.

The only thing that needs to be endured in this process.

It is the attack coming from the thunder.

True Lightning's residual consciousness lacks any independent will, so it naturally produces an autonomous defense against Luo De, the master of this consciousness space; once Luo De approaches the heavenly thunder, she will launch indiscriminate attacks on Luo De, who is intruding into the range of the consciousness fragments.

Fortunately.

True Lightning is a Teyvat person.

Her strikes landed on Luo De without causing even a ripple, and Luo De easily retrieved the two fragments.

"Indeed, it had no effect."

Attempting the simplest method of pressing the two consciousness fragments together, Luo De curled his lip.

He knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Since simple adhesion is impossible, next we can try using something similar to an adhesive to see if we can stick these consciousness fragments together.

What to use as the adhesive.

Luo De had also figured it out.

It's the trees planted by Hua Sanli—no, just the leaves will suffice.

Hua Sanli, who had early anticipated that True Lightning's residual consciousness would cause problems, while planting the trees, also erased his own consciousness residue left on them, using a method almost like tearing himself apart by five horses, in exchange for this forest that can both enhance Luo De's spiritual power and serve as a carrier for True Lightning's consciousness fragments.

"Hah—"

"Although I'm still angry at your arbitrary decision."

"But you ultimately did it to protect your close friend, which counts as some compensation to me."

"For now I won't scold you."

"Wait until Lei Dianying fixes your body for you, then properly compensate me."

After softly murmuring a few words to the sapling transformed from World Tree leaves, Luo De plucked several leaves from the nearby small tree, crushed them all, and collected all the flowing emerald-green sap.

Speaking of which, it's also strange.

Clearly it is a space of consciousness.

Yet the trees that Hua Sanli planted here are exactly like those in the real world—not only in appearance, but also in interior and detail, including the fact that crushing these consciousness-transformed leaves yields emerald-green juice just like real leaves.

Although this is only the first time doing such a thing.

Luo De's technique, however, is unusually skilled.

In just a few moments, he used the tree sap in his hand to make an adhesive as thick as paste.

"Hmph—"

Hefting the adhesive in his hand, Luo De let out a soft hum.

Again, Hua Sanli.

Although she had erased her consciousness from these trees, she still left behind the instinct of consciousness here.

Simply put, as long as one plucks leaves from these trees, even Luo De will follow the steps she pre‑left in the leaves, precisely and flawlessly producing the adhesive that can bind consciousness.

"Let's try again."

Testing the adhesive's stickiness, Luo De, who instinctively felt it was already sufficient, retrieved the two consciousness fragments that had returned to the thunderclouds.

The crackling lightning gleam continued to strike Luo De's hand with full force.

Just like before, it was useless.

Luo De effortlessly brushed the adhesive onto the consciousness fragments, then, like applying glue to paper, firmly pressed the two fragments together.

Boom—crack—

Instead of the imagined scene where the two consciousness fragments easily merged into one, they simultaneously emitted a blinding lightning light, far stronger than the mere striking lightning gleam from before.

Fortunately.

True Lightning is a Teyvat person.

This frightening-looking lightning light actually didn't even damage the corner of Luo De's clothes.

"."

"That shouldn't be."

Luo De separated the forcibly bonded consciousness fragments again; the lightning light vanished, and once more it became only a small striking lightning gleam.

Such a reaction from the consciousness fragments is not normal, logically speaking.

Even if this method is wrong, it shouldn't provoke such fierce resistance from the consciousness fragments.

It's as if they mutually repel each other.

"Huh?"

"Mutual repulsion?"

Luo De blinked his eyes, thinking of another possibility.

Thus he brushed aside the thunder on the consciousness remnants and carefully observed the structure of these two consciousness fragments.

Just a glance.

He then discovered the problem.

Just as he had just guessed.

True Lightning's consciousness fragments are not neat; they have many fine little gaps, and only by aligning all these gaps can they truly be pieced together.

"Isn't this just a jigsaw puzzle?"

Realizing where he had just gone wrong, Luo De looked up at the endless thunder and couldn't help but feel apprehensive.

These True Lightning consciousness fragments are not as coarse as thunder.

Given the power of the consciousness fragment in Luo De's hand, this thing is at most the size of a fingernail; wanting to see the gap pattern clearly is already difficult, and then one must piece together tens of thousands of fragments.

Luo De suddenly didn't want to do it.

Just break the contract, this isn't something a person can do.

Luo De, in a fit of pique, tossed away the consciousness fragment in his hand, then looked toward the ground and stared at the thunder in the sky.

This state continued for about an hour.

Luo De, who had originally wanted to give up, still sat up, cursing 'You're just despicable' while grabbing a handful of consciousness fragments and forcing himself to remember the shape of the fragments after parting the thunder.

Soon.

He then found two fragments whose notches could perfectly fit together.

After repeatedly confirming the shape of those two fragments, Luo De repeated the previous motion, first applying adhesive, then sticking them together.

This time.

No rejection appeared; instead, the lightning striking Luo De's hand grew stronger, even stronger than the combined lightning of those two consciousness fragments originally.

Besides that.

There was another change that made Luo De more concerned.

That was the aura contamination that had never appeared before.

It appeared! 'So that's how it's supposed to be!?'

Luo De widened his eyes, carefully watching the purple pattern spreading from the adhesive onto the consciousness fragment.

This was exactly the same change that occurred when the consciousness of Huasanli was assimilated before.

'So that's how it is.'

The thoughtful Luo De withdrew his gaze.

Judging from the current situation.

It should be that his consciousness aura couldn't break through True Lightning's defense, so he could never contaminate her consciousness.

On the contrary, this already-assimilated consciousness fragment of Huasanli could leave True Lightning's consciousness fragment defenseless, allowing the aura from her that is of the world beyond to inversely contaminate True Lightning's consciousness.

Although the process was a bit convoluted.

But the result ended up being good.

Upon realizing that Huasanli's legacy could solve the difficulty of preserving True Lightning's consciousness, Luo De's motivation instantly surged greatly.

He with great perseverance.

He focused all his spirit on identifying the consciousness fragments until his spiritual power was completely exhausted, his stomach hungry to the point of heaven-shaking earth, before he slowly came to.

He then felt lost for a little while.

Luo De's eyes finally glimmered.

He rubbed his eyes hard and shook his dazed head.

Clearly it was his consciousness focusing in the consciousness space to find a gap.

Yet his body similarly felt sore eyes and a headache, as if trapped in an inescapable hallucination, making him feel awful all over.

This is the aftereffect of exhausted spiritual power.

Nadixa had told him this before.

After spiritual power is exhausted, it directly feeds back into the brain.

This is deeper than the impact of exhausted bodily strength.

If it were a weak-willed person, exhausting spiritual power would plunge them into auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations, making it hard to escape at least for a short time.

Fortunately, Luo De's will is famously strong.

So he only needed a few breaths to adjust his mind, and his vision also cleared.

The World Tree only defends against mental attacks; it cannot provide Luo De with spiritual power recovery.

"Inhale—exhale—"

"Inhale—exhale—"

After taking several deep breaths in succession, Luo De stood up and staggered toward outside the tent.

He didn't know what time it was now.

He also didn't know how long he had been immersed in the consciousness world this time.

He now only knows one thing.

That he is extremely hungry, so hungry that even if a dragon were placed before him now, he feels he could eat it all.

Luo De hasn't felt this level of hunger for a long time.

The last time he was this hungry.

One has to trace back to his period of wandering in the desert.

There were few people in the camp.

It seems they all went to follow Jiutiao Shaluo to negotiate with Sea Deity Island.

However, those remaining had long received Jiutiao Shaluo's notice, knowing that this pale-faced, unsteady young man was the envoy sent from Howling God Island.

Stemming from good military habit.

Even if they were curious how Luo De achieved such an excessively indulgent appearance in the military camp, they showed no displeasure nor whispered any gossip.

The cook in charge of preparing meals likewise said nothing.

According to Luo De's request, they quickly brought out all the food from the cooking area.

Like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds.

In the astonished eyes of the cook and the duty soldiers, the starving Luo De actually ate enough to feed half the camp for a day, leaving nothing.

And after Luo De had eaten his fill and drunk his fill.

He patted off the dust on his body, ignored the surrounding gazes, returned to that quiet tent, and continued piecing together the consciousness fragments scattered like stars across the sky.

(End of chapter)