"This child..."
Lin Mo felt a pang of frustration.
Raising a kid's psyche was no small feat.
Kun Jun seemed to catch the worry in Lin Mo's eyes and offered a gentle smile. "Father, don't trouble yourself over it. Just knowing you're back should ease that grudge in my darker half's heart, I think."
"Ease the grudge, huh..."
Lin Mo frowned slightly. "And the two of you... could you merge back into one? Return to how things were before?"
"I'd say... probably, yeah?"
Kun Jun gave a wry smile.
It was clear even he wasn't entirely sure.
After all, the evil remnant of the Vishap King was smack in the middle of its teenage rebellion phase right now.
With both himself and Guizhong there, it might just revert to being Liyue's guardian behemoth once more.
But...
If it was just him alone?
That inner defiance might simmer down a bit, sure.
But reclaiming the old form? That was far from guaranteed.
Watching Lin Mo's brows knit tighter, Kun Jun ventured, "Father, how about... we go see him together?"
Lin Mo stayed quiet, no answer.
Meeting the Vishap? That was inevitable.
It was his child, after all—the one he'd failed to give a father's full love.
But... not yet.
Lin Mo's gaze drifted to the horizon.
That direction led straight to the Golden House.
Unless something went sideways, little sis Lumine was already en route—or inside, squaring off against Childe.
"Liyue's got some heavy trouble brewing."
Lin Mo shook his head faintly. "Head back to the seal for now. Tell him I've returned. Once this blows over, I'll come see him myself."
As he spoke, Lin Mo plucked a single strand of hair from his head and handed it over. "You both can sense my aura, so keep this safe. When he sees it, he'll know it's really me."
"Alright, I'll go tell my darker self right away." Kun Jun nodded.
"Go on."
Lin Mo waved him off.
After bidding Kun Jun farewell, Lin Mo's mind snapped back to the present.
He'd still head to Northland Bank.
Time to grill Signora on this Archon-unsealing scheme of hers.
Liyue, the Golden House.
Childe was already wreathed in the gleaming rings of Foul Legacy.
He locked eyes with Lumine, a mad grin twisting his lips.
"Keep your eyes peeled!"
"A nation stripped of its god..."
"Will it get swallowed whole by malice from the ancient depths?!"
"Hahahaha..."
Amid the wild laughter, Childe dissolved into a streak of Hydro, shattering the Golden House's ceiling in a spray of debris.
"If you lot fancy drowning alongside Liyue's people..."
"Then have a blast~"
"He's making a break for it! After him!"
Paimon yelped in panic.
Lumine gripped her sword and bolted for the Golden House's doors.
But the instant she stepped outside, the sight in the sky made her forget all about pursuing the fleeing Childe.
By now, Lin Mo had reached Northland Bank.
"Lady Ganqing, you've arrived."
Vlad greeted him with a smile.
"Yeah, where's Signora? In her office?"
"Er... well..."
Vlad's grin faltered. "Lady Signora waited for you all morning, and when you didn't show, she wasn't exactly thrilled. She stormed out of the office about half an hour ago."
"A real drama unfolding..."
Lin Mo's gut twisted with dread.
Don't tell me the Archon-breaking-seal plot kicks off today?
BOOM! RUMBLE!!
In that moment, the entire Northland Bank shuddered violently.
"Wh-what's happening? An earthquake?!"
Vlad clutched the wall in terror.
Shit!
Lin Mo cursed inwardly.
He stumbled out of the bank, staggering toward the ground floor.
Liyue Harbor's streets were packed with people.
Every eye was fixed on the sea beyond Cloudsreach, toward Jueyun Karst, faces etched with fear and unease.
Lin Mo followed their stares.
A swirling vortex of inky black clouds churned relentlessly overhead at Jueyun Karst.
As it spun, it dragged every cloud across Liyue's skies toward it, funneling them into the maelstrom.
Liyue's heavens had been clear and bright just moments ago.
But in under a minute, a pitch-black canopy loomed, ready to crash down upon the earth.
Turbulent storm clouds boiled like ink in water.
All of Liyue looked like the eve of apocalypse.
"It's here..."
Lin Mo's gaze hardened.
He knew it.
The pivotal moment of Liyue's saga—the Battle of the Jade Chamber—had arrived.
Sure enough, the Jade Chamber, once hovering serenely above Yujing Terrace, now drifted slowly toward the open sea.
Then—
WHALE—OOOOOH!!!
A bone-rattling cry echoed across the land.
Even the everyday folk in Liyue Harbor clapped hands over their ears against the crashing wave of sound.
"How... how can this be..."
Lin Mo's eyes widened.
He spotted the anomaly right away.
Three thousand years back, he'd seen Morax summon those plummeting Geo spears with his own eyes.
Witnessed the Lord of Rock seal Osial beneath the waves, birthing the isles of Jueyun Karst in a spectacle of raw power.
Back then, Osial—Vortex Vanquisher, caught in the maelstrom of the Archon War—was at the height of his might.
But that whale's bellow just now?
It sent a chill straight through Lin Mo's bones.
The sheer force of the sonic blast alone whipped up towering waves across the sky.
In a flash, Lin Mo realized: Osial's power dwarfed his former self.
Then, the deluge crashed from the heavens.
Behind the curtain of seawater, a colossal form revealed itself to all.
A leviathan dwarfing even the full span of Mt. Tianheng floated upon the Liyue Sea.
Its body was a writhing mass of eight eel-like heads sprouting from a trunk thick as the ocean's abyss.
Each serpentine neck was as stout as Jueyun Karst's peaks.
"How..."
Lin Mo's pupils dilated.
In the saga of a hundred lifetimes' return, few things could still shock him.
But now, beholding Osial's descent, his eyes brimmed with disbelief.
Osial's frame had doubled in size!
What should have been a translucent azure hide was now a suffocating shroud of deepest black.
Beneath the inverted black clouds, those sinuous necks stretched from the firmament, their eyes aglow with a palpitating violet abyss-light.
"Abyss... void..."
Lin Mo clenched his fists tight.
He knew it—the story had veered off course again!
But this time, it wasn't his doing.
It was the Abyss Prince enthroned in the depths: Aether.
"I told you... don't touch the people close to me."
"Aether... you just don't learn."
Liyue Sea, Jade Chamber.
At the first tremors of catastrophe, Liyue's mightiest had converged atop the Jade Chamber.
The Three Adepti: Moon Carver, Mountain Shaper, Cloud Retainer.
The Conqueror of Demons, Xiao.
The half-qilin adeptus, Ganyu.
Tianquan Ningguang.
Yuheng Keqing.
The Honorary Knight, Lumine, with her companion Paimon.
Knights of Mondstadt: Eula, Amber, Klee.
And Liyue's legal advisor, Yanfei.
They all stood upon the chamber's platform, eyes locked on the horizon over the sea.
Gazing at Osial's ponderous approach toward Liyue Harbor, unease flickered in every stare.
After hashing out an initial battle plan, Ningguang gave a solemn nod. "We'll go with what we discussed."
Their strategy: Unleash the ballistae left by Dust Goddess Guizhong to confront the ancient god and shield Liyue.
Ningguang strode alone to the chamber's observation deck.
She raised a hand, fingers splayed in a sharp thrust!
"No time to lose—the decisive battle is right now. Begin!"
With her fierce command, her lithe form lifted into the air above the platform.
A golden array bloomed from her fingertip's radiant Geo, unfurling like a vast net behind the Jade Chamber.
As the array blazed, the embedded sigils across the chamber ignited in sequence, erupting in brilliant flares.
One sigil rocketed skyward.
It lanced toward the array ahead, merging in a colossal transparent barrier that spanned the heavens.
In that instant, three pillars of light crashed down onto the array's heart, blinding in their intensity.
Bathed in the beams, three ballistae materialized at Ningguang's call, anchoring the array's three corners.
And their muzzles?
Trained squarely on the ancient god churning the seas into frenzy, Osial, as he lumbered ever closer.
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T/N:
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