"Are you looking for her?" Dain looked at Albedo, who had a pen tucked behind his ear and a notebook in his hands, and seemed a little confused.
This didn't look like the posture of someone searching for another.
"Hmm..." Albedo remembered Rhinedottir's words before he left, and the wrinkles on his face deepened.
"More or less, but hope is slim."
Albedo sighed. Regarding the "truth of the world," he hadn't even touched the surface.
"But we can't give up, can we?" Dain inexplicably felt a certain fondness for Albedo.
Perhaps this was a form of shared misfortune?
"Indeed. By the way, let's not talk about these things for now..." Albedo nodded, then, as if remembering something, he turned his head and shouted to Yu Jin in the distance:
"Yu Jin—the fruit of the Golden Tree has a problem."
Yu Jin, who was interacting amicably with the branches extending from the Golden Tree, looked up. "What? Are you done talking? When fellow villagers meet fellow villagers, shouldn't there be tears in their eyes? Where are your tears?"
"Mr. Dain and I shouldn't be considered fellow villagers, should we?" Albedo muttered.
He was created by Rhinedottir after the Great Cataclysm; at best, he could only be considered half a descendant of Khaenri'ah.
"To my knowledge, that's a Liyue idiom, and I'm not from Liyue, so it doesn't apply to me." Dain crossed his arms and twitched the corner of his mouth.
Tears in his eyes? Dain hadn't been like that even when Khaenri'ah fell, let alone just meeting a somewhat peculiar Albedo.
"Alright, what's the matter? Say it again, I was just playing with the Golden Tree and didn't hear clearly." Yu Jin pressed down with a large hand, pushing down the branch that the Golden Tree had extended.
"Let's go up the tree and take a look; it's a bit hard to explain." Albedo thought for a moment, then led Yu Jin and Dain towards the main trunk of the Golden Tree.
The massive trunk grew closer and closer, and the golden glowing patterns on it became increasingly clear, drawing one's gaze.
Dain came to the base of the trunk and looked up at the Sky. Beyond the endless golden ocean, nothing else could be seen.
Even Celestia, which had always floated high in the Sky, had disappeared under this radiance.
"What exactly is this thing?" Dain reached out and touched the trunk of the Golden Tree; it felt just like an ordinary tree.
As he was lost in thought, a suction force came from his hand that was in contact with the Golden Tree. Dain realized that his power was being devoured by the large tree before him.
"Hiss—" Dain immediately retracted his hand, and the suction force disappeared with it.
"What's going on?" Albedo looked at Dain's unusual reaction beside him in surprise. He hadn't seen the Golden Tree react like this to anyone else.
"No, nothing, it just might not like the aura on me." Dain said, then took a few steps back.
"Actually, it's not that. The Golden Tree is just hungry and wants to eat." Yu Jin, with his back to the two, dug a pit in the ground. After throwing something into it, he quickly filled it up.
Albedo glanced out of the corner of his eye; it looked like an indescribable mass of black and fleshy red.
Rubbing his eyes, Albedo decided it was better to forget about those things.
Yu Jin first clapped his hands, then walked forward and patted the tree trunk.
"This is all I have in stock. If you get hungry later, figure it out yourself."
"Hoo—"
Mysteriously, Dain and Albedo seemed to hear a sigh in their ears. Under the influence of this sigh, they felt that the Golden Tree's golden glow also seemed to dim quite a bit.
"Why are you sighing? When you grow up, you have to forage for yourself! By the way, there are many things underground, you can explore deeper, I estimate you can eat a lot."
"At worst, I'll reluctantly allow you to open a small hole, as long as nothing leaks in."
"Hoo~"
The sigh seemed a little happier, but still very dejected.
There was nothing that could be done about the dejection. The Golden Tree just wanted to eat "meat." As for its appetite... was there anything in Teyvat that could rival the Golden Tree's appetite? Yu Jin reserved his opinion.
This opening could not be made; once it was, it would be over. Then Yu Jin would have nowhere to find fun.
"Yu Jin seems... very familiar with this tree? Also, how can a person communicate with a tree?" Dain saw Yu Jin communicate with the Golden Tree without any hindrance and found it a bit magical.
Why did Yu Jin know so many things? The Golden Tree hadn't said anything. Well, if the ethereal sigh in his ear just now counted as speaking.
"This tree was planted by him. You haven't seen the Golden Tree grow; it's simply a miracle."
Albedo said with emotion, seeing Yu Jin discussing something with the Golden Tree nearby.
Do gods possess such terrifying abilities? Albedo hadn't seen it, but he would assume so for now.
"However, if it's about communicating with the Golden Tree, I can do it too."
Albedo smiled at Dain, then began to tap the trunk of the Golden Tree rhythmically.
"Rumble!"
The ground cracked, and a rather thick wooden vine broke through the earth directly beneath their feet, growing upwards and carrying them towards the Sky.
"Do you remember the fruit the Golden Tree bore earlier?" Everything on the ground was rapidly shrinking. Albedo looked up at the finally clear canopy veins above his head and said.
"What's wrong? Is it ripe? Call the others, let's cut it up and eat it." Yu Jin also looked up. In a field of golden light, there was a tiny white dot.
If one didn't look carefully, they might think it was just a white spot in their vision from eye strain.
"No, it can talk now."
Albedo sighed, forcing himself to maintain his expression.
He felt quite exasperated now. Why were things related to Yu Jin always so strange?
Fortunately, the fruit's voice was very soft now, not even as loud as the rustling of the Golden Tree's crown leaves.
But there was no guarantee that one day it wouldn't turn into a loudspeaker, just as it had suddenly started speaking.
Before that, Albedo felt it necessary to find the Golden Tree's primary guardian—Yu Jin—to come and take a look.
"???" Several question marks appeared above Yu Jin's head. Could it be that the Golden Tree didn't bear fruit, but its offspring?
It seemed there wasn't much difference between fruit and offspring for a tree, right? Unknowingly, Yu Jin's thoughts had drifted off again.
"A talking fruit." Dain was a bit numb; he seemed to have seen too many novelties lately, hadn't he?
..."World..., forget me..."
"I poke!"
"World—, forget me—"
"I poke again!"
"World~, forget me~"
"It's quite fun."
"Senior Yu Jin, stop playing." Albedo, with a dark expression, pulled Yu Jin away from where he was squatting and constantly poking.
The white fruit was as large as a person, with a vibrant green light flowing within it, and the elemental power overflowing from it had almost materialized.
However, as soon as the Dendro element permeated out, it was absorbed by the Golden Tree, otherwise, the Golden Tree would have developed excessive hairiness.
Yu Jin stood up, stroking his chin as he walked around the white fruit again and again, as if trying to discern something.
Seeing Yu Jin so serious, Albedo handed over the notebook he was holding.
"This is my preliminary research, Senior. Please take a look."
Yu Jin took Albedo's notes and flipped through them briefly; he couldn't understand. Fortunately, Albedo had thoughtfully included a summary at the end.
Throwing the notebook back to Albedo, Yu Jin said with a serious expression: "You mean, if this thing explodes, it might turn all of Mondstadt and parts of Liyue into a rainforest?"
"It's even worse. So many rapidly growing trees are more likely to cause climate imbalance, which is a more fatal threat than the rainforest itself!"
Albedo also had a solemn expression. When he reached this conclusion, he himself was startled.
This small white fruit actually possessed such immense power; it could almost be called a nation-destroying weapon.
"Hmm..., I understand..." Yu Jin nodded, then jumped up and slapped it.
"So it was you, you fellow, who made the Golden Tree's belly shrivel!"
"World ↑, forget me ↓"
The fruit's tone this time became even louder.
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