"Click... click... click..."
Stepping onto the soft grass, the faint, intermittent clicking sound continued to echo in his ears.
The poisoned water flowed slowly, showing no signs of life within.
Bai Luo closed his umbrella—once he entered the depths of Musoujin Gorge, the rain seemed unable to reach him, as if repelled by some unseen force.
Not just the rain. When he looked up, even Gorou's figure above appeared blurred. If he didn't focus, he might not even notice the general standing there at all.
Raising a hand, he waved to signal that he was fine, then gripped the Sakabato—now transformed back into a weapon—and walked deeper into the gorge.
Despite the eerie atmosphere, traces of human presence were still visible.
But compared to the remnants of campfires and food scraps, the bloody handprints on the stone walls and the claw marks on withered trees were far more unsettling.
The handprints varied—some large, some small, some thick, some slender—suggesting many people had left their marks here.
They must have pressed their hands in an orderly fashion, as if performing some kind of ritual.
"A ritual..."
Muttering the word, Bai Luo suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.
Reaching out, he touched the handprints on the wall, and his face visibly paled.
"This is..."
He should have been seeing these methodically arranged bloody handprints for the first time.
Yet, inexplicably, they felt familiar, as if he had encountered them somewhere before.
But when he tried to recall, the memory slipped away, leaving only strangeness.
At some point, a rustling whisper began to creep into his ears.
"Expel evil, bind demons. Purify within and without. Return to the righteous path... protect body and soul."
Pressing a hand to his temple, he unconsciously recited an incantation.
Yes, he had seen something like this before.
But not here. Not in this place.
In his daze, he seemed to see a young girl.
Her expression was resolute, a dagger in her hand.
And the words she chanted were the very incantation he had just spoken.
"Soul, depart!"
She formed a hand seal, then thrust the dagger toward Bai Luo.
The blade drew closer—so close he could see the talismanic engravings on it... and the tainted blood!
His right hand shot out, gripping the wrist of the attacker. Gasping for breath, Bai Luo slowly raised his head.
"You... really know how to ruin the mood."
The Sakabato left its sheath in a flash, a blade of light slicing through the air and sending the assailant flying.
The ragged, deranged woman crashed into the poisoned waters of the gorge, vanishing without a sound.
Was it the Tatarigami's influence?
No...
What Bai Luo had just seen wasn't the work of the Tatarigami. Rather, this sacrificial ritual had dredged up some long-buried memory.
But the question was... when had he experienced this? Why didn't he remember?
He had only jumped into an icy river to save a child, then been rescued in Snezhnaya.
His life in Teyvat was complete—except...
Bai Luo froze, his gaze shifting to the gorge's river-like waters.
Except for before he was pulled from that river.
After joining the Fatui, he had tried to uncover traces of his past in this world.
But no matter how deeply he searched, he found nothing.
As if the world had never known a "Bai Luo" before his arrival.
Eventually, he concluded that he hadn't transmigrated as a soul—his entire body had come with him, leaving no records behind.
But now... had something happened to him before he fell into that frozen river?
And that girl—why did she seem so familiar, yet he couldn't remember who she was?
It was as if every trace of her had been severed from his soul.
"I'll think about it later. First, I need to explore this damned place."
The throbbing in his head had subsided. When he looked back at the spot where the madwoman had fallen, her body was already gone.
In his anger at having his memories interrupted, he had used Earth Dragon Flash.
Though the Sakabato was a blade of non-lethality, that only applied to normal strikes. Earth Dragon Flash was a full-fledged combat technique.
She wouldn't have survived.
Sheathing the sword, Bai Luo pressed forward.
But this time, his hand never left the hilt. He had realized that Musoujin Gorge was far less peaceful than he'd assumed.
Sure enough, as he walked, he encountered more people driven mad by the Tatarigami.
Miners, fishermen, ordinary women—even Kairagi and Nobushi had fallen prey to its corruption.
Unlike the woman who had attacked him, most sat in dazed clusters, their eyes, noses, and mouths oozing blackened blood. Only a handful even noticed Bai Luo's approach.
And those who did merely glanced at him before looking away, making no move to attack.
In a place like this, survival alone was a struggle. Who had the energy for violence?
"Get out of my head... Stop growing ears in my brain... Stop..."
Others, more deeply afflicted, repeatedly smashed their heads against the stone walls.
Like Bai Luo earlier, they heard the whispering in their ears.
But unlike him, they had no incantation to ward it off. They could only endure the ceaseless murmurs—some tearing off their own ears, even piercing their eardrums in desperation.
Yet the voices still tormented them.
As one had said, it was as if an ear had grown inside their skull. With their real ears gone, the only thing left to hear was the Tatarigami's murmurs.
Suddenly, a woman Bai Luo had mistaken for a corpse grabbed the hem of his blood-red robe.
The Sakabato was already halfway to severing her wrist when he stopped.
Because in her eyes, he saw a flicker of clarity.
"Take... take him away..."
Her speech was garbled, her mouth filled with blackened clots, her tongue half-rotted.
The "him" she referred to was the bundle of bones cradled in her arms.
The child's age was impossible to determine—it was barely recognizable as human.
Long dead, only shattered bones remained, their size hinting at youth.
And on those bones... were teeth marks.
Meaning the child hadn't died from the Tatarigami, but from...
Bai Luo glanced at the blood-stained madmen around him and understood.
"I'll give him a proper burial."
A single Earth Dragon Flash severed the woman's head. Bai Luo picked up the bundled bones and turned to the other afflicted.
"Expel evil, bind demons. Purify within and without. Return to the righteous path... protect body and soul."
Reciting the incantation once more, he stepped toward them.