After enduring eight lifetimes of reincarnation, Elliot's heart and mind had long surpassed those of ordinary mortals. Yet even he had nearly fallen into the overwhelming pull he had just experienced.
"I'm never going near that place again..." Elliot shook his head and quickly put distance between himself and that cursed land.
The thought alone of what had crossed his mind moments ago was enough to leave him uneasy.
For now, he had no choice but to return empty-handed.
...
For a long stretch of time afterward, Liyue and the Guili Plains entered a rare period of peace amidst the ongoing Archon War.
Morax had finally mastered Heavenly Moving Myriads—"Planet Befall." From that moment on, his strength reached its absolute peak.
When he next faced Azhdaha, the two were finally evenly matched. Neither could gain the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Gui Zhong succeeded in inventing a machine capable of countering gods: the Gui Zhong Machine.
This creation truly possessed the power to kill an god.
Of course, its limits were clear—against ordinary gods it was deadly, but against high-tier ones like Osial, it was useless.
Even so, building one was no easy feat. Mass production was impossible. This was no industrial age; every part and every casing had to be crafted by hand. Producing even a single Gui Zhong Machine consumed immense amounts of time and effort.
Unknowingly, Morax grew closer to the quirky Gui Zhong. He laughed more, smiled more, and his once stony expression gradually softened.
But...
Good fortune never lasted forever.
"Brother... something isn't right lately..." Zhongli's face was grave, his tone heavy with worry.
"What is it?"
"It's been half a year since any god attacked Liyue. That's far too strange."
"Half a year!? What about the Guili Plains?"
"Nothing there either... It's as if every god vanished overnight!"
Given the scale of Liyue's territory, in the past they faced on average four or five gods each month.
Yet for the past six months, not a single one had come.
Half a year without a god attack.
Before, even one god in a month was already considered rare. The only time they had ever gone three months without seeing one was at the very start of the Archon War, when Liyue was still small and insignificant.
But now, with Liyue vast and flourishing, half a year of complete silence?
The thought alone filled Zhongli with unease.
"Have you checked other regions?" Elliot asked.
"I have. Outside of Liyue, the wars rage on as usual." Zhongli grew more unsettled the more he thought about it.
"This is... indeed abnormal," Elliot admitted with a nod.
He could already guess at the pattern.
It was likely that many gods had begun to take note of the alliance between Liyue and the Guili Plains.
Three gods , plus Azhdaha, and a host of Adepti—such a formidable coalition was bound to attract attention.
Before, Gui Zhong and Marchosius might not have mattered much. But now?
Gui Zhong's invention, the god-slaying Gui Zhong Machine, had pushed their defenses to a level nearly impossible to breach.
And then, in the very next instant—
Morax, the Adepti, even Azhdaha—all froze in place.
Morax's expression shifted visibly.
First, joy. Then confusion. Then his brows drew tight, his frown deepening until, at last, fear etched itself across his face.
They had felt it.
That dreadful, despair-inducing vision.
From every direction, countless gods surged toward Liyue, bringing with them tens of thousands of followers.
They roared and bellowed, bloodlust in their cries, charging with a momentum that promised to drown Liyue and annihilate everything within it.
"So... it's come after all..." Elliot murmured, his brows knitting together.