"Cough, cough, cough!"
Amidst the scattered rocks, Balladeer gradually stood up. He looked at the wound on his arm, which had almost exposed bone, and a surge of anger welled within him.
Previously, when Abyss Heralds encountered him, they would always flee, but today he had been outsmarted.
"A puppet?"
"Not human, so why oppose The Order?"
The two Apostles said, looking at the circuits and joints beneath his wound, a hint of surprise and uncertainty in their voices.
Could it be that the surface world had developed to such a powerful extent? Even the fallen Khaenri'ah only had intelligent machines confined to laboratories.
"Heh heh, you don't need to know. These questions, ask them after you're dead!"
Balladeer activated his Delusion and instantly rushed to the side of the two Apostles. His speed showed no signs of diminishing.
He was a puppet; as long as the internal circuits and structure were not damaged, even if his exterior was riddled with holes, his performance would not be affected in the slightest.
And coincidentally, the two wounds inflicted by Torrent were superficial. As long as they didn't worsen, for Balladeer, they merely made him look a bit unsightly.
"Dead? You are strong. But to kill us, you are not strong enough!"
An Abyss Passage appeared, and the Apostles vanished. Balladeer, too, stopped before the Abyss Passage.
The brilliant starry sky was beautiful, but it contained countless dangers. Balladeer was certain that if he jumped in, he would surely meet a gruesome end.
There were many dangerous places in this world. And the Abyss Order was precisely the organization that knew these places best.
"How was it?"
The Abyss Passage opened, and the Apostles reappeared.
The Fatui were not the only ones who wanted to probe the depths of The Order. And Balladeer was just one of the more active among those people.
To think he could kill an Abyss Herald by himself was not quite a pipe dream, but it wasn't far off.
The Abyss Order's number one enemy, Dainsleif, was immeasurably stronger than Balladeer. Yet, over several centuries, he had only slain a handful of Abyss Heralds.
More often, he merely thwarted The Order's plans.
"Just a bunch of ground rats who only know how to run," Balladeer retracted his fist, sneering.
"I don't want to argue with you, but since you're not human, we don't need to waste time here. You do your thing, I'll do mine."
Frostfall looked at the poised Balladeer, then turned away, no longer watching him. The most important thing now was to gather more information about the Golden Tree.
Balladeer was an irrelevant person; there was no need to waste too much time on him.
"Boom!" A flashing bolt of lightning surged forth, rushing towards Frostfall and Torrent.
However, both seemed prepared; the Abyss Passage reappeared before them, and Balladeer's accumulated strike, apart from shattering rocks, had no other effect.
"I find your flaws to be quite numerous: arrogant, conceited, and now you've added an inability to assess the situation."
A leisurely taunt echoed in the clearing, the two Abyss Heralds long gone.
"Hmph—damn it!" Balladeer cursed under his breath. Though unwilling, he had to admit that the Abyss Herald's statement was correct.
If there were only one Abyss Herald, he might have tried to detain it, but with two, the battle would only become a meaningless Consumption.
He couldn't kill them, nor could he keep them, so it was pointless other than wasting stamina.
"You'd better not pray the Fatui explore the Abyss again, or you'll have a reckoning!" Balladeer punched a nearby rock, then continued towards the mountain peak.
Originally, his trip to Mondstadt wouldn't have been so soon, but headquarters observed an anomaly in Dragonspine and dispatched him early.
Balladeer had no objection to this; ever since he returned from exploring the Abyss underground, his mission had become mobile standby.
Mobile standby, mobile standby—it sounded good, but in reality, it meant handling emergencies and doing tasks others were unwilling to do… The summit of Dragonspine had undergone a significant transformation. The previously rugged rocks had been roughly smoothed and pushed aside by growing trees, and the once uneven peak had now become incredibly flat.
In the large clearing before the Golden Tree, the accumulated snow had melted away. Specks of green dotted the landscape, making the summit the most vibrant place.
Upon the mottled grass, a similarly dark green camp stood quietly. A still-burning bonfire emitted a warm glow, illuminating all the bottles and jars around.
Beside the makeshift alchemy table set up in the camp, stood a man with short flaxen hair, dressed in a yellow and white coat.
Albedo, he was almost the only permanent resident in Dragonspine. In Dragonspine, he could focus on his research.
As for instrument issues, Albedo's research was too profound; even Sumeru, with its highest alchemy attainments, probably couldn't create equipment to assist him.
Or perhaps, Albedo's research had now returned to its fundamental roots, requiring only an alchemy table as an instrument.
Moreover, there was this profound creation before him, enough to occupy his research for a lifetime.
Albedo looked up at the Golden Tree before him, shimmering with a faint golden light. Its trunk, reaching here, looked almost like the end of the world—so vast that his vision could no longer encompass anything else.
As if sensing Albedo's gaze, golden flakes drifted down, creating a golden drizzle around Albedo.
"Thank you," Albedo closed his eyes, feeling the warmth radiating throughout his body, and said with a smile.
He had forgotten one thing: here, Albedo found the delicate, silent warmth he liked.
When engrossed in work, Albedo would always find some fruit added to his desk; when the light dimmed, a light from an unknown source would always dispel the darkness... Of course, sometimes there wasn't fruit on the table but flesh, and the light emitted could sometimes even blind him...
"The essence of the world... starting with humans?" After feeling the fatigue in his body dissipate, Albedo once again turned his attention to the alchemy table before him.
Perhaps calling it an alchemy table was inaccurate; it should be called a "Golden Tree" alchemy table.
Because this alchemy table was built with the help of the Golden Tree for Albedo.
Its effect, naturally, was much more powerful than an ordinary alchemy table. So powerful, in fact, that it allowed Albedo to make a small push on the Topic left by his master.
Albedo took out two test tubes from his waist, both containing extremely vibrant red liquid, which was the blood of Sucrose and Timaeus.
He poured Sucrose's blood, and the crimson liquid spread out. Then, under the combined action of Albedo's restoration technique and the Golden Tree, the puddle of blood eventually disappeared, leaving only a faint layer of white powder.
Taking out a test tube, Albedo collected the white powder from the alchemy table. Then he tried again with Timaeus's blood.
The result was the same.
"Drip! Drip!"
Blood dripped from Albedo's wrist, and he repeated the process, again yielding a faint layer of white powder.
"It's the same as my blood," Albedo took out another test tube of blood and placed it on the alchemy table.
"It's different from pigeon blood," Albedo mused, looking at the thin layer of blood on the alchemy table.
When reduced to its essence, the blood of Mondstadters and his blood were the same. But it was different from other creatures.
But the problem was, he was his master's homunculus.
Albedo looked at the white powder in the test tube. Dust of Azoth, this was the product of his blood after reduction. A powder that could change the properties of matter.
And Sucrose and Timaeus were the same as him. Did this mean that, to some extent, they were also homunculi?
Extending this, were the people of Teyvat all created, rather than being native organisms like pigeons?
"What a peculiar discovery, but it seems someone has arrived?"
Albedo collected his thoughts and walked out of the camp. In his perception, someone had arrived, and they were strangers.
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