"How was it? Did you finish looking?" Yu Jin asked the crowd before him, raising his withered arm.
"If you're done looking, I'm going to draw blood," Yu Jin said. Seeing that no one was speaking, he walked to the Golden Tree Sapling, preparing to let it bathe in his fresh blood.
"Draw blood? Didn't you say the Golden Tree could grow here?" Lisa asked, puzzled, upon hearing Yu Jin mention drawing blood.
"It can, but it would take too long. I'll make it ripen faster, and once it's grown, it'll be better at handling things unique to your world."
As Yu Jin spoke, he made a gash on his arm.
Thick, vibrant blood flowed from the wound on Yu Jin's arm, its color so vivid it seemed otherworldly.
Lumine watched the blood dripping from Yu Jin's arm. At first, she only thought Yu Jin's blood was incredibly red, almost unrealistically so.
But as she focused her gaze, Lumine saw more colors within that vibrant red.
There were too many; countless colors Lumine had seen and not seen intertwined on the crimson canvas, bizarre and unsettling, as if all the colors of the world were contained within it.
Lumine rubbed her aching eyes. Looking at the vibrant red before her, she inexplicably felt as if the blood was paint.
Crimson paint flowed from Yu Jin, which was why the scene before them felt so unreal.
Lumine's guess was correct; Yu Jin's blood was indeed paint, paint used to create worlds. The colors beneath the crimson were the possibilities of another world.
If a painter could wield this paint well, it would be enough to create an entirely new world on the canvas.
The unreal blood spilled down, landing on the upward-reaching Golden Tree.
Blood and flesh are the best nutrients for the Golden Tree. And now, this Golden Tree Sapling, germinating in another world, absorbed something its parent body had never tasted.
Yu Jin's blood poured onto the soil where the Golden Tree Sapling stood, and the crimson quickly faded into the brown.
Then, the Golden Tree Sapling felt a huge warm current surge from its roots throughout its entire body.
"Hold tight! The Golden Tree is about to start growing!"
"Rumble!"
No sooner had Yu Jin's words fallen than the sound of the earth rumbling echoed from all directions. The ground on the mountaintop undulated like waves on the sea.
Beneath the earth, the Golden Tree's brilliant roots began to grow wildly at an extremely rapid pace.
The thicker the Golden Tree's roots grew, the dimmer their golden light became. This made the Golden Tree look more like an ordinary tree.
This is a normal phenomenon during the Golden Tree's growth. The Golden Tree is only brilliant gold all over when it is a sapling and when it is fully mature.
During its growth, the sapling will gradually grow towards becoming an ordinary large tree. Once it has absorbed enough nutrients, it will return to its original simplicity, transforming its enormous self back into pure gold.
The Golden Tree's roots were like thick, powerful wooden dragons, striving to grow deep into the earth.
Whether it was hard frozen soil or massive rocks, everything was like paper in front of these writhing roots. They could shred them effortlessly and continue growing deeper.
Above ground, the Golden Tree Sapling's trunk also grew rapidly, just like its roots beneath the earth.
In just the blink of an eye, the Golden Tree grew to tens of meters tall. Its size could already rival other ancient trees on the continent.
However, as the main trunk was about to touch the crowd, its growth speed suddenly slowed.
Immediately after, several vine-like branches dangled from the Golden Tree's thick boughs. These branches firmly wrapped around everyone, pulling them high into the sky.
Once everyone was off the ground, the Golden Tree had no more worries and began to grow freely.
A wooden wall, reaching from the earth to the sky, began to appear, pushing aside large swathes of earth and rock. Nothing could stop the advance of this wooden wall.
Those entangled by the vines found themselves getting higher and higher..., until they broke through the clouds.
"Whoosh—" An incredibly dazzling golden light began to pour down, dyeing everything around it golden.
"Look! What is that thing!"
"A tree, such a big tree!"
"How did it grow so fast!"
...Dragonspine is within Mondstadt's borders, so the people of Mondstadt were naturally the first to notice the anomaly on the snowy mountain.
When they looked towards the snowy mountain, they were shocked to discover that Dragonspine was no longer its unchanging frosty white.
Golden, a golden hue covering the entire snowy mountain completely suppressed the color of the white snow. Dragonspine would probably have to be renamed "Dragonspine Golden Mountain" from now on.
And what caused all this was the giant tree on Dragonspine that had broken through the clouds.
Dragonspine no longer had a mountaintop, because its summit had long been squeezed away by the now fully grown Golden Tree.
And the Golden Tree's enormous canopy overshadowed the entire Dragonspine! That dazzling golden light was emitted by the canopy.
"Master Diluc, you cannot..."
"Bang!"
Acting Grand Master Jean's office door was violently flung open, and a hurried Diluc walked in. Behind him followed an anxious Wood.
Diluc saw the scene in Acting Grand Master Jean's office, was momentarily stunned, then quickly returned to normal.
"Wood, it's fine, you can go," Acting Grand Master Jean knew what had happened with a quick glance. So she dismissed Wood.
"Yes!" Wood performed a Knights of Favonius salute and no longer dwelled on Diluc's forceful entry into Acting Grand Master Jean's office.
"Bang!" Diluc hooked his foot back, and the office door closed.
"Not bad, I'm starting to have some good feelings about the Knights of Favonius," Diluc surveyed Eula, Kaeya, Rosaria, and Venti, nodding in approval.
These people were the mainstays of the Knights of Favonius, and they had arrived even before him, which was commendable.
Although he had rushed from Dawn Winery, Kaeya and the others had indeed arrived first, and that attitude was worthy of praise.
"Kaeya, Rosaria, aren't Lisa and Albedo here?" Acting Grand Master Jean asked, looking at Kaeya and Rosaria who were gathered around her.
Lisa and Albedo were also indispensable high-tier combatants in Mondstadt, and their extensive knowledge always helped them find the root cause of things.
And this time, the sudden appearance of the giant tree on Dragonspine would probably rely on them.
However, to her surprise, Rosaria and Kaeya both shook their heads, saying:
"Lisa (Albedo) went out on an errand."
"Went out?" Acting Grand Master Jean's brows furrowed slightly. Lisa and Albedo, those two homebodies, actually went out? What could possibly entice them both to leave?
"No need to guess, it's Yu Jin," Venti said helplessly, sitting on the windowsill and looking at his palm.
The wind in his hand carried many auras, including those of Yu Jin and Lisa.
As soon as Venti's words fell, the office was plunged into silence.
"It's him after all!" Kaeya shrugged, looking as if he had expected it.
"He really knows how to cause us trouble," Diluc's mouth twitched, but he said nothing more.
"That big tree..." Acting Grand Master Jean, hearing that Yu Jin had taken Lisa and the others, still asked with a glimmer of hope.
"They're the ones who made it happen. When they come back, you can just ask them," Venti turned his head to look out the window. The huge, golden-glowing Golden Tree was so conspicuous.
Venti rubbed his eyes. He was currently wondering how he was going to fall asleep tonight... "Yu Jin, why didn't you say the Golden Tree would be this big when it grew?" Lisa asked calmly, looking at the trunk beneath her feet, which was like the earth itself, and the leaves above her head that shone so brightly she couldn't open her eyes.
"You didn't ask, did you?" Yu Jin said, completely oblivious, putting his arm guard back on as if nothing had happened.
Lisa's calm expression immediately crumbled. Her distorted face, amplified by the dark purple Electro element, looked particularly terrifying.
"Hey, hey, hey! Lisa, what are you trying to do?"
"What am I trying to do? We've caused huge trouble! Don't run!"
"Only a fool wouldn't run!"
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