"Holy shit! Victor, there are two Dendro Archons!"
Lumine's eyes sparkled as her gaze darted between Nahida and the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
Two! Double the happiness! This was incredible!
"Calm down, Lumine! Don't get caught staring like that!"
Paimon tugged on Lumine's golden hair, trying to prevent her from rushing over.
The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata looked at Lumine with an amused smile, though the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.
This person clearly had considerable strength judging from her aura, but she also had... rather peculiar tastes.
Ignoring Lumine's questionable behavior, Rukkhadevata turned her attention to Victor. "I didn't expect someone else to know about my plan. And you don't seem to be from Teyvat, do you? You're different from the Descenders."
Victor nodded. "That's right. I come from another world, and the biggest difference between me and the Descenders is that I can travel freely between different worlds."
You can travel freely between worlds?
Rukkhadevata's eyes widened slightly at this revelation.
Nahida spoke up, sadness evident in her expression. "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, is what Victor said true? Are you really going to delete yourself?"
As the new grass god born from the World Tree, she understood exactly what deleting oneself meant.
Once Rukkhadevata was erased from the World Tree, all traces of her in the world would disappear.
People would completely forget her.
It would be as if she had never existed in this world at all.
Rukkhadevata nodded gently. "It's the only way to completely eliminate the forbidden knowledge from this world. This is the only path to saving the World Tree."
"But the people of Sumeru love you so much! Everyone has been missing you, even I..."
For the first time in five hundred years since her birth, Nahida shed tears.
"How could we just forget you like that?"
Rukkhadevata stepped forward and gently wiped away the tears on Nahida's face.
"Don't be sad, Buyer. You will definitely replace me and become an even better god than I ever was."
"But..."
This touching scene moved even Lumine, who'd been acting strange earlier. She couldn't help but wipe away tears of her own.
"Ahem!"
However, a sudden dry cough interrupted the emotional moment.
"What are you doing? Ow!"
"Such a touching scene, and you just had to ruin it!"
Lumine wiped the corners of her eyes and glared at Victor indignantly.
"I know you're all emotional right now, but don't panic just yet."
"I have a way to remove the pollution from the World Tree while saving the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata."
As soon as those words left his mouth, Nahida immediately spoke up. "What's the solution?"
"It only takes a force more powerful than the power of the Abyss to easily erase the forbidden knowledge from the World Tree!"
After all, forbidden knowledge was just another form of Abyss power. It could be eliminated by using something stronger.
Coincidentally, Victor and his companions possessed exactly that kind of power.
Its name was spiritual power.
Upon hearing this, Rukkhadevata shook her head. "I've considered this method before, but in the world of Teyvat, there is no power more potent than the power of the Abyss."
"And if we use power from other worlds, the World Tree will still have a rejection reaction. How would that be any different from the contamination by forbidden knowledge?"
The World Tree in this world was extremely fragile and highly xenophobic.
Once it came into contact with any power that didn't belong to the world of Teyvat, it might become contaminated and trigger a rejection reaction.
Such had been the case with forbidden knowledge and Abyss power.
This was one of the reasons why the Heavenly Principles were so exclusionary toward outsiders.
Those from other worlds brought powers and knowledge that didn't belong to the world of Teyvat.
Victor smiled. "Don't worry. The more powerful force I'm talking about does exist in Teyvat itself. It's called spiritual power!"
"Spiritual power exists in every world and is the source of power in most worlds!"
"Using it to eliminate forbidden knowledge won't cause the World Tree to reject it, it'll make it stronger!"
"In fact, it might even allow the entire continent of Teyvat to ascend to a higher level someday."
The fact that Lumine could cultivate immortality on the continent of Teyvat proved that spiritual power existed here.
Therefore, using spiritual power to help the World Tree eliminate forbidden knowledge posed no problem.
"However..."
Victor's expression turned serious as he looked up at the World Tree before them.
"After being contaminated by forbidden knowledge last time, the World Tree has become more fragile."
"If we rely on outsiders to inject spiritual power into it, there's a very high chance the World Tree will die directly. So..."
"Nahida, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, come and cultivate immortality!" Victor opened his arms with an almost missionary-like enthusiasm.
"Cultivate immortality?"
Nahida and Rukkhadevata exchanged confused glances.
Victor nodded firmly. "Yes, cultivation!"
"Cultivation is the best way to master spiritual power. And as incarnations of the World Tree, once you begin cultivating, you'll also lead the World Tree to absorb spiritual power."
"When that happens, even without help from others, you'll be able to completely erase the forbidden knowledge yourselves!"
"Will this really work?"
Rukkhadevata still harbored doubts.
On the contrary, after listening to Victor's method, Nahida immediately nodded in agreement.
"I'll do it! As long as the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata can stay, I'm willing to try anything!"
"Well..."
Hearing this, Rukkhadevata could only sigh helplessly. "All right. I'll give it a try. But if it doesn't work, please don't hesitate, just erase me."
"Don't worry, this method will definitely work! You'll understand once you start cultivating."
Victor patted his chest confidently.
"And who knows? Maybe you, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, can even be resurrected because of this."
"Really? That's wonderful!"
Upon hearing that Rukkhadevata could be resurrected, Nahida looked more excited than Rukkhadevata herself.
Resurrection?
Even Rukkhadevata's eyes flashed with anticipation.
Who would want to die if they could live?
"Let's begin now. There's no time to waste."
Victor sat down cross-legged.
"Sit in front of me and stretch out your hands so your palms face mine."
Upon hearing this, the two began to follow his instructions.
When their palms were facing each other, Victor spoke again. "Now close your eyes and relax your minds. I'll teach you the cultivation method and guide you through your first practice session."
"Okay!"
On the side, Lumine and Paimon watched quietly.
After a long while, Paimon suddenly reacted. "Wait, if I remember correctly, the first power transmission takes a while, right? Do we have to wait here the whole time?"
"Don't worry. It'll only take two or three hours at most. It'll be over soon."
Lumine's words put Paimon at ease.
If they only had to wait two or three hours, that wasn't too bad.
However, they soon came to regret it.
Time passed minute by minute. In the blink of an eye, more than ten hours had gone by, yet the three from Victor's group still weren't finished.
"Seriously? Why is this taking so long?"
Even Lumine couldn't keep calm anymore.
It had been more than ten hours and still wasn't over!
"Ugh, Lumine, I'm hungry. Did you bring any food?"
"I didn't."
"What should we do then?"
"What else can we do? Let's bounce! We'll go to another world, and when Victor and the others are done, we'll come back!"
At her current cultivation level, she couldn't tear open the spatial barrier to return directly to Sumeru. Now she could only visit other worlds to find food and shelter.
"Okay, okay! Which world should we go to?"
Paimon stomped her feet in the air, looking forward to the adventure.
Lumine glanced at Victor, who was still teaching cultivation, and a sly smile crept across her face. "Of course we're going to Victor's place to raid his pantry!"
After saying that, Lumine immediately activated the time-travel talisman and took Paimon away from the Teyvat world.