"I don't feel much." Wendy had barely finished speaking when she felt a sharp pain in her head. She clutched her head and gasped for breath.

What do you think I saw?

Young man, and...? A group of old men?

No, wait? What's going on?

"We can lend you a hand, but we have our own conditions." A cold female voice rang out. What deal had the girl and the old men reached?

Then, there is pure white...

"Wendy, are you alright?" Wendy opened her eyes and saw Xiao squatting in front of her, looking at her with concern. "I'm fine." Wendy patted her head, the pain gradually subsiding, and she seemed to see something.

Did Su Bai make herself see it?

“It’s very rare. As expected of you, sir. You are the first person who did not faint from the pain or go berserk. The data is rare, but thank you very much.” The older sister closed the notebook. “Now we can go and check out the strength test.”

Wendy remained silent, probably because he was a god, so the elixir was likely of little use to him; his true form was a wind spirit, so the elixir probably wouldn't be of much use to him.

However, the gene-refining agent did allow him to see something extraordinary.

The girl is likely Luminous, the younger sister the Traveler often mentions, and the princess of the Abyss. The power of the Abyss has extended beyond Teyvat, so she cooperates with the group that created the Whitebeard. But why? The Abyss aims to create a world without godly rule and revive Kanriar, which is inherently in conflict with the Whitebeard.

The White One was created to rule the entire universe, while the Abyss is a world without gods.

Or is there something wrong with plain white itself?

Because he saw the boy there.

Lost in thought, Wendy arrived at the strength testing area in a daze. After testing his strength, Xiao discovered that it had indeed increased, and by a considerable amount. "Next is the vacuum environment test. After gene tempering, your bodies can adapt to a vacuum environment, but there will be some discomfort. Therefore, we need to simulate a vacuum environment for everyone to get used to." The older sister led Wendy and Xiao to another place.

Xiao looked at the tightly closed door and went inside. His sister immediately went into the next room. "Can you hear me?" Xiao heard his sister's voice. "We're going to extract the air from this room right now. It might be uncomfortable, so please bear with it." "Okay." Xiao nodded, and his sister pressed a button in the next room.

Xiao felt the surrounding air being sucked away by some kind of instrument, and he felt slightly uncomfortable, but only for a moment, until a large screen appeared in front of him. On the screen was a line of text: "Do you feel uncomfortable now? If you feel fine, shake your head." Xiao shook his head, and the text in front of him changed again: "Good, try to speak and see if we can hear you. Then, try to move your body and see if there is anything uncomfortable."

Xiao said hello, then moved his body a bit and felt no hindrance. He took out the spear and twirled it, then tried a few movements with Pu Yuan and didn't feel uncomfortable anywhere.

"Looks like everything's alright." The older sister pressed a button, and the air filled the room again. Xiao then went outside.

"Your adaptability is quite good, which means you have excellent physical fitness to begin with. Next, Master." After explaining the situation to Xiao, the older sister said to Wendy. "Hmm." Wendy still looked a little sullen, but she immediately cheered herself up.

Upon entering the room, just like Xiao had back then, Wendy quickly adapted to the vacuum environment.

"Congratulations to both of you on successfully completing all the gene tempering projects." The older sister clapped her hands. "We also look forward to your continued contributions to the Federation."

After that, they went their separate ways.

"You look troubled. What's wrong?" Xiao asked, noticing the lingering worry on Wendy's face. "Hmm? Ah... just some trivial matters. It's nothing, don't worry about me," Wendy smiled. "I'm a bard, the best bard in the world. What could possibly trouble me?"

“...You don’t have to pretend,” Xiao said. “Even a fool could see the worry on your face.”

Wendy suddenly leaned closer to Xiao, their eyes meeting. Xiao's face flushed slightly, and Wendy burst out laughing: "Since you can tell even if someone's an idiot, then you can tell, so are you an idiot?"

"..." Xiao never expected that he would be tricked by Wendy.

"Whatever makes you happy." Xiao sighed. In this respect, he really couldn't compare to Wendy. Wendy had a silver tongue and could often fool people into losing their bearings, but he didn't. So, in some ways, he was still inferior to Wendy.

The two continued training, but this time they trained their bodies in a vacuum environment.

A few days later, the Alliance launched another attack on the Federation, and the sky turned dark again.

"It's going to start fighting again," Wendy sighed. "I've never liked fighting." "Yeah." Xiao wasn't fond of fighting either, but he was a Yaksha, a Yaksha who only knew how to kill, and he protected the lanterns of every household during the Lantern Festival. Although during the Lantern Festival, there was always some Mondstadt kid who didn't do anything productive coming to the Wangshu Inn to have fun.

It's you, Barbatos!

“During the Lantern Festival, as I gazed at the myriad lights of homes, a thousand emotions welled up within me. In Liyue, we fought for the people of Liyue; in the fate of the nation, we fought for Blue Star; and in the Federation, we fought for the Federation. But who will fight for us?” Xiao calmly looked at the sky. “Let’s go. Time waits for no one.”

"Sigh." Wendy watched silently as Xiao entered the mech and piloted it through the atmosphere, sighing that the shackles on him had become even more severe.

"I'll have to discuss Xiao with the old man when I go back to Teyvat this time," Wendy thought.

Inside space, the battle had already begun. When Xiao joined the fight, the previously evenly matched situation was suddenly broken. Xiao, piloting his mech, fought his way through, and by the time Wendy arrived, the situation had been almost completely resolved.

On the Alliance's side, several people suddenly appeared and joined the battle with their own bodies. They began to destroy the mechs piloted by the Federation, trying to forcefully dismantle them and expose the pilots' bodies to the vacuum, where they would eventually die in despair.

But that's not the point.

When Wendy saw someone, his pupils dilated in shock. He never expected to encounter her here. "Long time no see, friend," Wendy murmured to himself, leaving his mech and walking in the vacuum with his bare body.

————

Water character count~

Xuanqun

Welcome everyone!