Sword Art — Illuminate All Rivers… can be directly granted to someone else too?
Ying rolled her eyes.
So our resident fence-sitting king, Su Xuan, just "forgot" to ever mention that, huh?
Still, compared to the sword art itself, she was more curious about Skirk, that other person from beyond this world.
So she asked, "Didn't you say she's missing all four limbs? How is she supposed to learn a sword art like that?"
"That kind of thing doesn't really stop her," Su Xuan sighed with a hint of regret. "She can use Abyssal energy to recreate phantom limbs. It doesn't affect her movements at all."
Su Xuan remembered what Su'ltroche had told Skirk:
If she wanted to defeat him, she had to walk the same path he once walked.
When she trained Tartaglia, Skirk had basically copied the training method Su'ltroche once used on her.
The only difference was—
Tartaglia still had to live in Teyvat.
He couldn't just grow Abyssal limbs in front of normal people the way Skirk did.
So when it came to Tartaglia, Skirk had softened—
She hadn't broken his arms and legs.
Which made it very likely that her own missing limbs had everything to do with Su'ltroche's "special training."
Tch.
Here he'd thought those black stockings under the starry sky were just "sexy fashion"…
And it turns out Skirk's beautiful legs were literally Abyss energy molded into feet.
His brain hummed.
"Man…" Ying suddenly sighed. "For someone also from beyond this world, she's had it way rougher than me."
At least Ying had Aether as a lingering hope; she wasn't completely alone.
And judging by Su Xuan's description, Ying had made many friends and her name was spreading across Teyvat.
Meanwhile, Skirk was still stuck in the dark Abyss, endlessly grinding through brutal training.
Kind-hearted as she was, Ying couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her.
"Funny thing is, she's very interested in you," Su Xuan chuckled.
"In me?" Ying blinked.
Su Xuan nodded.
"Yeah. Like Aether, she's already traveled this world once."
"But after you woke up, there was a period where she trailed you from the shadows."
"When you and Paimon left the beach in Mondstadt, she appeared there right afterward."
"She stared at the picture you drew in the sand—
The one of you fighting the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles—for a long time."
"Unfortunately, my arrival changed a lot of the original developments."
"This time, she didn't follow along your journey."
In Su Xuan's opinion, Skirk probably couldn't figure out his intentions, and out of caution, chose not to appear near Ying.
But that was fine.
It wasn't like Su Xuan had ever planned on letting her go in the first place.
Plus, with the Mirror of Heaven's Dominion allowing temporal adjustment, reconstructing a body was child's play for him.
"As for her, we'll talk when we actually meet her," he said. "For now, let's deal with Sumeru."
Seeing him change the topic, Ying nodded obediently.
From experience, any time Su Xuan "pre-announced" he'd give someone power in the diary, that person was almost certainly a diary-holder.
If Skirk was a diary-holder, she was destined to be hauled up onto the Jade Chamber roster sooner or later.
So there was no need to worry about her.
"Mn. Let's go meet Nahida." Ying took Paimon with her left hand and Su Xuan with her right.
The three vanished into the sea of golden sand.
Sumeru — Sanctuary of Surasthana.
As the light curtain before her faded, three figures appeared in Nahida's room.
"Mm!" Nahida flinched in surprise.
At long last, the "Father" she'd only ever seen in the diary had finally appeared in front of her.
She hadn't even recovered from the excitement when—
Paimon's startled voice rang out:
"Eh!? Nahida has her own diary copy too?!"
She's clearly the same size as Paimon, but Paimon had to share a diary with Ying, while Nahida got her own?
Was this the difference between an employee and a daughter?
Su Xuan raised an eyebrow and glanced at the little god locked inside the cage.
He did not immediately free her.
Instead, he lifted his hand and snapped a picture.
[Little Lucky Grass King in a Cage.jpg]
The Sumeru girls reading the diary all went wide-eyed.
They had already known, in theory, that the Akademiya had imprisoned Nahida—but seeing it with their own eyes was something else entirely.
Where did the Akademiya get this kind of courage, to actually cage a god?
[A brief commentary on Sumeru's second Archon, Little Lucky Grass King—Nahida.]
[Before her death, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata plucked the purest branch from the World Tree.]
[From it was born Sumeru's second Archon, Little Lucky Grass King Nahida.]
[When the Akademiya first found her five hundred years ago, they did hold a formal ceremony.]
[They hoped she would bring wisdom and strength to Sumeru, just like Greater Lord Rukkhadevata did.]
[But once they realized her wisdom seemed childlike, they locked her in the Sanctuary—just like this.]
[Since her wisdom was "childlike," that proves they didn't spend much time with her before declaring her useless.]
[They clearly didn't understand how divine succession works. They just assumed that as the Archon, she should have power and wisdom from the start.]
[The truth is: other than the first Archons of the Archon War era, every second-generation Archon grows under the guidance of the first.]
[Whether it's Ei inheriting Raiden Makoto's position, Focalors inheriting Egeria's, or the Tsaritsa inheriting the White Tsar's…]
[Before taking the throne, they all served as trusted aides or familiars of the previous Archons.]
[They had plenty of time by their side—learning, observing, and building experience.]
[Of course, Natlan is an exception. Its second Archon, Mavika, is human—the warrior chieftain of a Natlan tribe.]
Everyone: "???"
"The Pyro Archon is… human?"
That was something they had never even imagined.
A mere human, recognized by Celestia as one of the Seven?
[Which is why Nahida is basically the unluckiest second Archon.]
[Rukkhadevata shoved her onto the throne as she lay dying. From birth to now, Nahida has never even met her.]
[She never had a chance to stay at her side and learn.]
[She had just woken up, was dragged out to dance and sing, basked in a brief moment of kindness—]
[Then immediately got slapped with the label of "useless" and locked up.]
[Her childlike heart was shattered, and she closed herself off…]
[But was she really powerless?]
[I said earlier: she once trapped the would-be god Scaramouche in a loop of 168 dreams with a single blow.]
[She used the Gnosis to power the Akasha, linking the minds of all Sumeru citizens, forming an internet-like consciousness network.]
[Through the Akasha, she can invade the wearer's consciousness at will, even exerting near-possessive control over their bodies.]
[Most importantly—she was born of the World Tree. She can read the thoughts in people's hearts.]
Everyone: "?????"
"Read… thoughts?" Paimon stammered.
Ying frowned slightly.
"If that's true, doesn't that mean nobody can hide anything from her?"
Su Xuan smiled.
"More or less. So long as you're recorded in the ley lines, dodging her sight isn't easy."
After all, the later Nahida had seen straight through whether Dottore had truly destroyed all of his segments—
She even heard their screams and complaints as they were erased.
At minimum, someone with Dottore's power level hadn't escaped her notice.
Logically, the two Nahidas—though not the same persona in terms of experience—shared virtually identical authority.
As incarnations of the World Tree, both Rukkhadevata and Nahida naturally possessed a portion of its power.
[So my conclusion hasn't changed.]
[While the Akademiya mocked Nahida, not realizing… nothing they did escaped her sight.]
[If she wished, she could take over the minds of a few sages and walk out of this cage anytime.]
[The reason she never did so is simple:]
[First, the sages are still Sumeru's people—those she loves and cherishes.]
[Second, because of her early trauma, she turned inward, endlessly reflecting on how to improve herself—how to become a god her people could accept.]
[She got trapped in the cycle of trying to prove herself.]
[And then the fate system of the False Sky decided it wanted to uplift Scaramouche.]
[This poor child never truly ruled Sumeru from the day she was born to the day she vanished.]
"Mm…" Nahida felt her chest tighten.
It really was like that.
According to Su Xuan's earlier entries—
After Ying rescued her, she had worked with Ying to defeat the god-ascended Scaramouche.
But once Rukkhadevata was erased from the World Tree, Nahida went with her.
In the end, the one who ruled Sumeru was the other Nahida who existed solely to take care of Scaramouche and considered herself the first Archon.
She herself had never truly governed Sumeru at all.
Her time had all been wasted in this birds' cage.
[That said, this Nahida really is softer-tempered than the later one.]
[Maybe that's why the Akademiya dared lock her up.]
[If we swapped her and Ei's positions…]
"Pff—!" Ying burst out laughing.
"If Raiden Ei were Sumeru's god, the Akademiya would probably spend their days hiding under their beds."
[Exactly.]
[Ei is actually very aligned with the Akademiya's dream god image.]
[In terms of knowledge, she created the Raiden Shogun and Scaramouche—ultra-high-intellect puppets stronger than ordinary mortals.]
[In terms of wisdom—who in Teyvat can match her?]
[While others are still exploring the world, she's already elevated "the more you gain, the more you lose" into a philosophical doctrine.]
[If she walked into their lecture halls and dropped "Only Eternity approaches Heaven," Greater Lord Rukkhadevata herself would be stunned into silence.]
On the Jade Chamber, the girls eating lunch nearly choked from laughing.
Hu Tao widened her plum blossom eyes.
"If the Raiden Shogun went to Sumeru as Archon and the Akademiya dared lock her up, wouldn't she cut them all down?"
Raiden Ei answered seriously:
"Mm… I probably wouldn't kill them."
"Pff!" Eula chuckled. "This hypothetical doesn't work. Who would even dare imprison the Raiden Shogun?"
Yae Miko narrowed her fox eyes.
"Oh my, what did our man pour into our dear Ei's ears? We're talking about Sumeru, and somehow she still ends up getting mentioned~"
Raiden Makoto and Kitsune Saiguu exchanged a look.
Makoto smiled.
"Now, now. Don't put it like that, Miko. Ei just looks slow—she's actually quite sharp."
Ei shot them a look, then decided not to argue.
Still, being mentioned by Su Xuan again left her in an absurdly good mood.
She tried a bite of Xiangling's dish, and her eyes lit up.
"What is this? It tastes wonderful."
Xiangling immediately perked up.
"Sweet-and-sour pork! I followed a recipe and ingredients Su Xuan gave me."
"Is it really okay? It's my first time making it, so I wasn't very confident…"
"It's excellent," Ei praised without hesitation, before looking at Xiangling.
"If you have time, would you teach me how to make this dish?"
Yae Miko: "?!"
The Inazuma girls all turned to stare.
So, besides martial arts and technology, their retired Shogun now wanted to step into the realm of cuisine?!
Back in the Sanctuary.
After finishing his notes, Su Xuan finally turned toward Nahida in her cage.
Paimon glanced at the diary floating in front of the little Archon and grinned.
"Boss, Nahida's a diary-holder too."
"So that means she definitely knows why we're here—it's just that we don't know if—"
Before Paimon could finish, Nahida's clear, somewhat anxious voice cut in:
"Father, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Paimon and Ying: "?!"
Wow.
She didn't ask a single question.
She didn't demand proof.
She didn't even bring up dead zones or Eleazar.
She went straight to the point—and nailed the identity on the first try.
Smack.
Su Xuan's palm landed lightly on Ying's backside.
He raised a brow and smiled.
"See that? That's called wisdom."
"My five-hundred-year-old daughter truly lives up to the title of God of Wisdom."
Ying burst out giggling.
Thinking about it carefully, Nahida's move really was clever.
Even if Su Xuan hadn't promised to help with Eleazar and the dead zones—
Just acknowledging him as her father was enough.
How could those things not be solved afterward?
Joking as he moved, Su Xuan lifted a hand.
The cage binding Nahida dissolved instantly.
She floated into his arms of her own accord.
Su Xuan lifted her high into the air.
"Good girl. You made the absolute right choice."
Dangling there, Nahida suddenly felt very embarrassed.
She might be small and squishy like Klee, but she was five hundred years old.
With Ying and Paimon snickering off to the side, her face burned, and she felt like her head was steaming.
She hurriedly latched onto another topic to distract herself.
"Father, I heard you once said you wanted to form your own dedicated idol team."
"So lately, I've had our Sumeru dancer Nilou devote herself to training her dance."
"Would you… like me to summon her here so she can perform for you?"
Su Xuan: "?"
This kid… even comes with filial piety pre-installed?
His thoughts turned, and the diary updated again.
[Things between Nahida and me went very smoothly.]
[The moment she saw me, she called me Father.]
[Put me in a great mood.]
[I also didn't expect her to be so filial.]
[She remembered my "dream idol team" idea from Mondstadt and actually prepped Zubayr Theater's star dancer, Nilou, to perform for me.]
[Mm…]
[Truly a dutiful child.]
[From this day on—Nahida is the brightest little bean in all of Teyvat.]
Nilou: "Eh?!"
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