Collei finished her chant and opened her eyes.
The vial in her hands had vanished.
Did that mean… the offering worked?
She hesitated, then pulled out her phone and typed a message:
[Collei]: Mr. Xia, did you receive it?
[Mr. Xia]: I did.
[Collei]: That's good!
[Mr. Xia]: Mm. Keep an eye on your surroundings. If anything happens, contact me right away.
[Collei]: Okay!
Collei set her phone down and exhaled softly.
Peace settled over her heart.
Having a powerful, protective god watching her back—
it felt… wonderful.
After a quiet moment of gratitude, she looked down at the Doctor's corpse, thoughtful.
She still needed to deal with the body.
Should she bury it?
She was strong enough now to dig a big hole easily—but what if another segment came later and dug it back up?
Knowing the Doctor, he might even experiment on his own corpse.
Better not risk it.
Collei summoned her dark bow once more, drawing the string.
A black arrow formed between her fingers and shot straight into the body.
The arrow pierced cleanly through.
Moments later, the corpse crumbled to ash.
Collei gave it one last glance, then melted into the shadows and disappeared.
---
Xia Zhi opened his inventory and took out the vial of fresh blood.
"The Doctor's segment, huh…"
From Collei's account, he had a rough idea now—the Doctor had created multiple cloned versions of himself.
It certainly complicated Collei's revenge.
Each segment seemed to possess complete memories, and they even appeared capable of sharing information.
Which meant each and every one of them was her enemy.
Even with the power he'd bestowed upon her, it would take her ages to eliminate them all.
Still—he had promised her, in his own quiet way.
He'd told her, "I'll remember."
That counted.
"If I accept their faith, I share their burdens," he murmured, smiling faintly as he swirled the vial.
"The Doctor loves experimenting on others… so let's experiment on him this time."
He placed the vial on the desk and summoned a special item from his system inventory:
[Temporary Certificate].
He inscribed upon it an identity he'd once used atop Dragonspine—
[Vampire Progenitor].
The moment he equipped it, his skill list expanded with a host of blood-based abilities.
Two in particular caught his interest: [Rebirth of Flesh and Blood] and [Curse of Blood].
Back on Dragonspine, he'd used Rebirth of Flesh and Blood — Divine to resurrect Durin's heart into a living form.
Now, it was the perfect chance to test the other.
He uncorked the vial.
At his thought, the blood within floated up, coalescing into a small hovering sphere.
"With my name," he whispered, "I curse you."
Divine light flowed from his hand.
The blood spell evolved, from scarlet to gold.
[Curse of Blood-Divine]: Requires a sample of the target's blood. Inflicts a curse that permanently reduces one random attribute of the target by 1. The negative effect doubles every passing day.
Golden light sank into the floating blood.
The sphere shimmered once, then vanished into thin air.
The curse was complete.
It should affect both the true Doctor and all his segments simultaneously.
Xia Zhi leaned back, intrigued.
The effect targeted a random attribute—strength, intellect, spirit, luck… anything.
But since he'd just drunk a Luck Potion, his current luck value was extremely high.
Meaning the curse would likely strike the attribute that would hurt the Doctor most.
And knowing the Doctor's personality, the one thing he'd dread losing most was—intelligence.
Day one: –1 intellect.
Day two: –2.
Day three: –4.
By day eleven… –1024.
Even Xia Ci didn't have a thousand points in intellect.
In other words, if even the God of Wisdom herself were hit by this curse and failed to notice it in time—she'd turn into a drooling idiot within eleven days.
"Even if it doesn't hit his intellect," Xia Zhi mused, "any stat dropping to zero would cripple him all the same. I wonder if the Cryo Archon will notice and break the curse…"
He tilted his head, recalling what he'd heard before.
"They say the Fatui's internal power struggle is brutal—anyone who kills an existing Harbinger can take their place.
If the Cryo Archon can't undo it…
the Doctor might not live long enough to find out."
---
Sumeru City.
On the bustling streets, everyone passing by wore a leaf-shaped Akasha Terminal on their temple.
Collei slipped silently through the crowd and returned to her temporary inn.
She first checked the room carefully, making sure no one had entered while she was away. Only then did she take out her phone and call Nahida to report everything that had happened.
After listening to her full account, Nahida thought quietly for a moment, then told her not to act rashly for the time being.
Collei was silent for a long while before whispering, "I'm sorry, Lady Lesser Lord Kusanali…"
With her wisdom, Nahida of course knew why Collei was apologizing—she was referring to her change in faith.
Nahida smiled gently. Though her voice was youthful, it carried a warmth that put people at ease.
"Collei, you don't need to apologize. Whether you place your faith in my cousin or in me—it's all the same."
Collei blinked, startled, then nodded softly. "I understand, Lady Lesser Lord Kusanali."
After ending the call, Collei gazed out the window for a moment. Then she set the dark hairpin she wore beside her waist-hung Dendro Vision.
Looking at the two objects side by side, she felt a strange, newfound sense of peace.
---
Inside the House of Daena, Nahida sat deep in thought.
"…The Doctor's segments…"
"…Good thing I didn't send Nilou to investigate, or she'd likely have been caught up in it…"
"…Collei seems to have calmed down now. With the tracking spell in place, she's the best one to continue following the trail…"
"…Still, if she faces the Doctor again, she might lose control like before…"
"…It would be safer to assign two reliable partners to assist her."
"…That way, she could act as the visible distraction while her teammates conduct the investigation behind the scenes."
"…The issue is—who to choose? Sumeru doesn't exactly have many people suited for this kind of work…"
"…Should I summon Nilou back?"
Nahida hesitated.
Just then, a new message appeared—
not through her phone, but via an unmodified Akasha Terminal.
The sender: Haypasia.
This scholar, who lived in Gandharva Ville, had recently become one of Nahida's most faithful devotees, much like Nilou.
With her complete access to the Akasha, Nahida needed only a flicker of thought to see the message in full.
"Great Lord of Wisdom, while meditating in the forest, I came across a girl who had fainted.
Beside her was a floating companion named Paimon."
"At Paimon's request, I contacted the Forest Rangers, and we carried the unconscious girl back to Gandharva Ville, where Tighnari treated her."
"She's awakened today. Though still a bit disoriented, her body appears fine."
"According to her self-introduction, she's the Traveler—Lumine—the very same one who's become famous across Teyvat in the past two years."
"She and her companion came to Sumeru seeking an audience with [Lesser Lord Kusanali], hoping to learn something about her brother."
"Additionally, she said that while unconscious, she dreamed of a red sky and a massive tree standing at the world's center.
As she approached the tree, she heard faint words: [The world… has forgotten me]."
After reading, Nahida's expression turned subtly strange.
Clearly, Haypasia thought the dream was important—that's why she'd sent the report immediately.
But Nahida already knew the truth, thanks to her sister Xia Ci.
That eerie line—"The world… has forgotten me"—was just a recording playback.
Nothing to worry about.
The only noteworthy detail was the red sky Lumine had seen in her dream.
That indicated contamination—residual traces of Forbidden Knowledge.
Sumeru still had a few areas tainted by it, such as the Withering Zones and cases of Eleazar.
But that too wasn't a major concern.
Once her cousin arrived from Inazuma, those problems could easily be erased.
In fact, Nahida found Lumine herself more interesting than the dream.
The famed Traveler—said to wield multiple elemental powers despite not having a Vision.
She'd helped Mondstadt resolve the Dvalin crisis, assisted Liyue in subduing Osial, and even fought both the Fatui Harbinger La Signora and the Raiden Shogun at Tenshukaku.
A strong, trustworthy person with a proven track record and no ties to the Fatui—perfect partner material for Collei.
After thinking for a bit, Nahida picked up her phone and called Collei again.
----
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