Chapter 154 Entering Liyue for the first time, something I haven't done in a long time...
"Bring the boat over here, I'll go in and take a look."
Secure the charred, broken-mast ship to the chains, and Beidou nimbly leaped onto the tilting deck, only to be quickly startled by the scene before him.
The entire ship looked as if it had been scalded by lightning and fire; the damp, burnt smell was oppressive and nauseating.
Has it encountered a storm? Are there any survivors?
Indeed, there was one; she found a white-haired boy on the verge of death under the helm.
"Hang in there! You're saved! Ginkgo! Ginkgo! Don't worry, the doctor is coming soon!"
"No! Don't save me yet!"
Wanye immediately awoke from his exhaustion and unconsciousness, gripping her arm tightly. "Let's go to the cabin and see the Wild Spirits!"
"Wild Wanderer? What kind of name is that?"
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Beidou laid him flat and immediately kicked open the dilapidated cabin door, the smell of scorching wind and blood assaulting her senses.
"Cough, cough! This is..."
Entering quickly, the first thing Beidou saw was a samurai who was also unconscious. His sword was covered with cracks from being struck by lightning, but his body was unharmed. It seemed that he had collapsed from exhaustion after fighting against the lightning.
Behind him was a clean and tidy bed, the white quilt not even a speck of dust on it, and a person wearing a crown slept peacefully in it, with a beautiful demeanor and a tranquility like snow.
At least there seemed to be nothing unusual, and Beidou breathed a slight sigh of relief, smiling as she reached out to help the young man with the cat ears.
"You're so well protected, are you that important to them?...!"
Wait! The young man seemed calm, but when he touched it, it was all wet and cold. Beidou suddenly threw off the blanket and gasped.
There is no tranquility like snow.
What was concealed beneath the pristine white quilt were clearly patches of fresh blood that had seeped into the cotton fabric.
Just then, the ship's doctor, Ginkgo, poked her head out under the protection of several sailors, "Captain Beidou, where is the wounded? Quickly, bring him to the ward, I'll treat him..."
"...Not at sea."
"What are you saying, Captain?"
Beidou scooped up the blanket and the person in his arms. "I mean he won't survive at sea! Tell the second-in-command to change course! Immediately! Right now! Full speed back to Liyue Harbor!"
...
Beidou's judgment was absolutely correct; the ship's doctor, Ginkgo, was indeed helpless against cat-ear disease.
"Give them the painkiller first. What? It's still slowly bleeding? There must be something wrong with the bandaging. Tsk, bandaging the wound so tightly will cause necrosis."
Based on her experience, she removed the overly tight bandages, raised the forearm that had been cut in half above her heart, and pressed the cloth tightly against the cut surface, continuing to exert force. Despite the tension, she still had the energy to teach her apprentices.
"Watch carefully, apply pressure continuously and evenly, and do not lift the fabric to check, otherwise you will damage the fragile scab that has just formed."
Soon she lost the energy to teach because of her apprentices' stuttering.
"Master, really, don't you want to lift the fabric to check... it's see-through..."
"I feel like he hasn't formed a scab at all?"
...We're doomed!
"Beidou! Use all your strength to tighten it! As long as you don't crush anything, it's fine!"
"? Aren't you considering the possibility of necrosis?"
"Necstasy is for the living! Don't dream of such luxury now! What's wrong with this guy's body..."
"...It was so awful."
Seeing the young man trembling unconsciously on the bed, even Beidou, who had never met him before, couldn't bear it any longer. She instructed the crew:
"Hey, I happen to have one of those magical pills, the kind that supposedly can save lives. Could you give it to me?"
"Sister Beidou! That thing is extremely precious! I've heard it contains the essence of heaven and earth, how can you just give it away to outsiders!"
"Is it that precious? Ningguang gave me several boxes. Sigh, just take it when I tell you to..."
The pill was forcibly fed to him, and the effect was immediate. Although the gauze was still slowly seeping red, the cat-eared youth's eyelids trembled slightly, and after a moment, a pair of beautiful vertical pupils were revealed.
"Whoa... cough!"
Beidou paused briefly, then coughed lightly and gave him a reassuring smile:
"Hey... Wild Wanderer, are you feeling any better?"
It's rare to see such good-looking people at sea.
Hmm, if her complexion were a bit rosier, she would definitely look even better!
"..."
The cat-eared youth stared blankly at her, then slowly turned his head, scanning the unfamiliar crowd with his gaze.
The doctor and apprentices surrounded him tightly, and Ginkgo frowned as she reached out her hand to him.
"Just opened your eyes? And you look a little dazed? Sister Beidou, didn't you say your pills could bring the dead back to life and heal the wounded? How come I haven't seen any effect at all?"
So many...so many people.
There were many strangers.
……it hurts.
Danger.
Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger!
"Hiss!!!"
Baring his fangs and with his cat ears bristling, Mainkun, in a daze, swung his claws to scratch the doctor's outstretched arm, but missed.
"!?"
After missing his target, Maine instinctively checked his hand, but instead of his right claw, he saw only a rounded, pink end.
...
"Aaaaaaah!!"
The figure that had been lying quietly on the bed suddenly sprang up, and Mainkun tumbled off the bed without hesitation, staggering as he desperately tried to crawl under it.
"What's going on?!"
Beidou tried to intercept it immediately, but failed to catch even a thread.
"Did Ningguang's pills cause brain damage?"
"Damn it! It's stress! He's definitely terrified, Beidou, you immediately..."
"Stress? Should I immediately leave the room and give him some private space to relax?"
"No! This fragile body doesn't have that kind of time!?"
Dr. Ginkgo was frantic. She flipped Tiangang and pressed the captain's head under the bed.
"Quickly, grab him! Once the ship docks, take him straight to Bubulu!"
In the shadows under the bed, Beidou saw two murky beast eyes trembling in the darkness, clearly terrified.
"Arrest him? Looking at him like this, I'm actually a little hesitant to use force right now... Hey, hey!"
"Hey, what are you afraid of? Come out here! This is Beizhaoxing. With me here, who would dare to hurt you... Ouch!"
A stray hair was slowly scratched off by the cat's left paw.
"Ha!!" Mainkuhn roared with all his might.
A severely wounded beast, mired in the shadow of pain, acts solely out of the instinct to protect itself. How could it tolerate the approach of a dangerous element?
"captain?!"
"Luckily I retreated quickly, otherwise I would have been disfigured again."
Beidou touched the hair on his forehead with lingering fear, mentally estimating the speed at which the claws were extended.
“He’s very strong, I can’t pinpoint his location… Have those two boys woken up? If they have, bring them over.”
Yuren arrived soon after, looking completely bewildered.
"Captain, I heard that Wild Wanderer was so terrified that he lost his mind? How could that be? Wild Wanderer is the strongest and most respectable person I've ever met. Even if he lost his hand, he should be able to..."
Beidou: "Look down at the floor under the bed, try your best to communicate with him, and it would be best to coax him out directly."
"Hiss!!"
"Wow! Wait? Is this a wandering spirit?... What happened to you?... Stop, don't touch the ground with your severed limbs, it will hurt... Ouch! I told you it will hurt!"
*
Zhongli had a gut feeling that something unusual was happening in Liyue Harbor today, as if something big was about to happen.
But he couldn't quite put his finger on what was unusual about it.
"I think you're just having some trouble adjusting to sudden retirement."
The man with the dragon horns nonchalantly played with the stone in his hand, showing it off to him with great interest.
“Look at this gem in Nata. The vertical line in the middle has blunt tips at both ends, like a spindle or a cat’s eye… I’ll find a golden one someday and make a good gun to match it.”
It's good that Rota continues to enjoy his hobbies.
"Don't forget to call me when you find it so we can admire it together."
"I can't forget you, old friend."
As I stepped out of my room to explore the bustling city, the younger members of the Wangsheng Hall, with their mischievous and playful manner, approached me.
"My dear guest, my good employee, could you do me a small favor for Master Hu?"
“Miss Walnut, strictly speaking, I am not your guest.” Zhongli didn’t want to help; he wanted to go have tea, so he made up an excuse.
"Because the Hall of Rebirth is still under the control of the 76th generation head, your father, and you and I are, in a sense, equal employees."
"So what?"
Hu Tao's eyes darted around, unafraid to discuss life and death, only wanting to order Zhong Li around.
"When Dad dies in a few decades, everything in the Hall of Rebirth will be mine, including you. It's only a matter of time, so why worry so much?"
“I am not as young and promising as Master Hu. I am afraid that by then I will be over seventy years old, in my twilight years, and unable to serve you.” Zhong Li refused again.
"I'll secretly increase your reimbursement limit."
"...What do you want me to do?"
"Hehe, it's nothing."
Hu Tao looked guilty.
"I just wanted to ask you to go to the beach, wait for the fishing boats to come ashore, and then pick out the freshest fish for me. I need to make soup for Grandpa to help him recover."
...
Selecting fish on-site; they're slimy and gooey.
"Goodbye."
"No, no! Think about the bills, think about how you've already prepaid two months' salary, and think about Linlangxuan's newly launched products!"
Zhongli turned to leave, but Hu Tao caught up with him in a flash, tempting and pleading with him.
“You know the fish I stewed last time was absolutely awful, even Grandpa couldn’t eat it… It must have been the fish that was the problem! Guest Master, I know you have sharp eyes, you can spot something even in a broken antique. If you just use your keen eye to examine the fish, you’ll surely satisfy my filial piety…”
"You can ask your friends at Wanmintang to help you choose."
"No way! Xiangling is making a new dish today, I dare not go to her!"
"I can't do it, and I don't dare."
Zhongli stood rooted to the spot, refusing to move forward no matter how much Hu Tao dragged and pushed him, until the golden traveler and the white elf passed by.
"Kong is really good at picking fish, and we're going to the port anyway!"
"Um."
The boy gently agreed with Paimon's words.
"I have an urgent mission for the Death Star, and I'm going that way anyway."
"Great!" Zhongli stepped back and watched as the girl cheered, wrapped her arms around the boy's shoulders, and turned to run away.
"Great! You're a hundred times better than the guest elder! ...The Death Star's mission? Even the Uncrowned Dragon King Hokuto has enemies he can't handle?"
"They're not enemies anymore!"
Little Paimon carefully corrected it.
"It seems there's a patient with cat ears who's gotten into some trouble. Beidou asked us to go to Bubulu to buy some mild sedatives and take them over to him to knock him out. We don't know the specifics of what happened..."
"Huh? A sleeping potion?" Hu Tao felt strange. "Given her straightforward style, even if a patient was being unreasonable, shouldn't she just knock them out with a single blow?...Guest Elder? Why did you come back? Did you want to go buy fish?"
Zhongli ignored her, walking faster and faster, further and further away, leaving her with a solemn back view.
He reached the deck of the Dead Star before the Travelers and overheard the crew's confused conversation.
"Captain Beidou still hasn't dealt with that patient?"
"Didn't you see the black mist that just rose from the ward? That patient is a bit strange...maybe he's a fallen immortal!"
"You really dare to dream!"
Ignoring all of this, Zhong Li pushed open the door to the ward, and what came into view was a group of people squeezed into a corner of the ward by the black mist.
"Zhongli, the guest elder of the Hall of Rebirth? What are you doing here?"
Beidou frowned in confusion.
"I'm here to pick them up."
God's gaze pierced through the black mist, surveying the ward. Suddenly, he bent down and swiftly reached under the bed.
Wan Ye exclaimed softly, immediately warning, "Watch out for his fingernails!"
"!!"
Zhongli's hand jerked, and instantly a series of violent, continuous blows came from under the bed, as fast as a drumbeat.
"It's nothing."
Unharmed, Zhongli knelt down beside the bed, one knee on the ground, looking down at Mei Yin's vacant, lifeless vertical pupils and her trembling body.
"Hiss..." The low growl had lost its strength; all the intimidation was merely bluster.
Ah, it's always like this.
His eyes swept over the bloodstains on the ground, then lingered on the bleeding limbs, and Morax spoke softly.
"Mr. Xiao En, do you still recognize me?"
"Waaah—"
Mainkuhn lowered his head, leaned back, and trembled as he dodged the hand that slowly reached out, which hadn't broken his skin even after being clawed a dozen times.
"I see."
The Rock King's hand slowly reached into the darkness, like an overwhelming cloud, obscuring Mainkun's entire vision.
"I am really... really sorry."
bass.
With a swift gust of wind, Tie Shi's thumb pierced into Mainkuen's sharp teeth. Mainkuen instinctively bit down, but was immediately caught off guard and his intact left arm was seized. Zhong Li used both hands to pull the terrified young man from under the bed by his jaw and shoulders!
"Aaaaaaah! Ah!... Cough!"
Zhongli twisted Mainkuen onto the bed, suppressing his feeble struggles with his knees. He held Mainkuen's broken arm, which bounced in his hands like a drumstick, for a while, then suddenly closed his eyes.
"Excuse me, could you please step outside for a moment?"
“He is very uneasy with you here.”
I can't bear to look anymore.
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