"Ahem, I was just afraid someone would pick up your things if you left them here, so I was just keeping them safe for you."
Lumine, who had been sold out by Paimon, immediately coughed lightly and explained.
Then she glanced at the Electro Slime Ryan was carrying in his hand and chose to change the subject:
"Why are you still holding a Slime? Is it the same one from last time?"
Last time in Jueyun Karst, when Lumine ambushed Ryan, she noticed an Electro Slime by his side.
Such individual monsters that are not aggressive towards humans are rare; usually, even Slimes will attack humans on sight, unless there are too many people and they get scared away.
"Yes, this guy is getting fatter and fatter now, he should be able to help me take a few more bolts of lightning."
Ryan took back his sun and moon cup from Paimon and explained, while Paimon scurried back to Lumine's side.
"So you're going through tribulation again?"
Lumine asked curiously.
Although she had seen it a few times, she was still quite curious about the process of attracting lightning to undergo tribulation, much like watching Adepti summon wind and rain; she wanted to see it a few more times to get her fill.
Hearing Lumine's question, Ryan hesitated for a moment but still nodded his head.
"Great! Let's go buy some popcorn. Wait for us to come back before you start!"
Lumine's eyes lit up, and then he immediately took Paimon and turned to return to Liyue Harbor at the foot of Mt. Tianheng from the nearby Teleport Waypoint.
"?"
Ryan tilted his head, then exchanged glances with Lime, who was being held by his little topknot.
The two stared at each other for a while, and only then did Lumine and Paimon reappear by the Teleport Waypoint.
The moment they appeared, Lumine swung his hands, spreading a picnic blanket on the ground, then sat down with Paimon, and took out a pile of fruits and roasted meat, even a grill to continue roasting.
They hadn't managed to buy popcorn, but they thought this was good too.
"Alright, you can start now."
Lumine said to Ryan, taking a bite of the hot roasted meat he was holding in both hands.
"..."
Ryan was speechless for a moment, then decided to turn around and take out the Hair Dye Pill, out of sight, out of mind.
"Heavenly Tribulation for engraving..."
As Ryan's incantation fell, the sky above Mt. Tianheng became filled with rolling thunderclouds within a few breaths.
Liyue Harbor at the foot of Mt. Tianheng was naturally within the range of the thunderclouds. People thought it was going to rain and quickly collected their clothes that were drying outside.
"Oh, it really looks like it's going to rain. Even the wind blowing through has gotten cooler. When the weather is hot, he should come more often..."
Paimon swallowed the roasted meat in his mouth and couldn't help but say this after a gust of wind blew by.
Lumine, beside him, nodded in agreement.
As the thunderclouds rolled, Ryan looked up at the brewing lightning tribulation, holding Lime by the small topknot on his head.
Seeing that the tribulation lightning was almost fully formed, he then switched to holding Lime above his head with both hands.
Boom—
The first bolt of tribulation lightning was successfully absorbed by Lime. He twisted his body and appeared to have swelled up considerably, while Ryan was completely unaffected by the tribulation lightning.
"It's still okay..."
Feeling that Lime was still very lively, Ryan secretly nodded and continued to let him bear the tribulation lightning for him.
Soon, three consecutive bolts of lightning struck Lime, and he swelled up like a water-filled balloon.
Clearly, he could no longer absorb the tribulation lightning.
Before the new tribulation lightning could fall, Ryan turned around and looked at Lumine and Paimon with a mischievous smile.
"?"
Then Ryan threw the overstuffed Lime over.
At this moment, Lime's body was expanded to its limit, becoming a behemoth about two or three meters in diameter. If thrown like this, although it wouldn't hurt Lumine, it would certainly bury him and Paimon underneath.
Seeing Lime falling, Lumine curled his lip in disdain, casually pulled out the Serenitea Pot, pushed it forward, and collected Lime, who had almost submerged him and Paimon, into the Serenitea Pot.
Gently blowing on the spout of the Serenitea Pot, Lumine raised his eyebrow triumphantly towards Ryan.
But Ryan ignored him and instead began to follow the previous procedure, using the power of the Electro Yaksha Bosacius to resist the tribulation lightning.
Soon, the lightning tribulation passed without any incident.
[Hair Dye Pill (3-star · Colored): After consumption, gain the ability to change hair color within the range of "white, light pink, brown, light purple, blue," and can obtain the abilities of "body shrinking and flight, flame manipulation, soul communication, immortality, Qilin power" respectively according to the hair color order, but the body will temporarily become a girl's appearance when using the abilities.]
The colored Hair Dye Pill gained additional effects on its original basis, allowing the user to obtain corresponding abilities while changing hair color.
Ryan looked at these abilities and hair colors and immediately understood that these were the abilities of the girls whose hair provided the raw materials for the pills.
Body shrinking and flight, corresponding to white hair, clearly referred to Paimon.
Qilin power was blue hair. Although the fur was provided by Ryan's tail, the Qilin power originated from the Qilin Pill refined from Ganyu's blood.
The other three abilities corresponded to Yanfei, Hu Tao, and Qiqi respectively.
"It will temporarily change appearance when used, huh..."
Ryan muttered.
The last paragraph of the pill's description had two interpretations: one was that the body temporarily became female.
The second was that when using someone's hair color and their ability, one would temporarily transform into their appearance, meaning Paimon, Yanfei, Hu Tao, Qiqi, or Ganyu.
As it was only a textual description, ambiguity was possible. Without personally swallowing it to try, Ryan couldn't determine which one it referred to.
"Forget it, Master is female anyway, so it's not a big problem."
Muttering to himself, Ryan still decided to give this pill to Cloud Retainer.
He still couldn't forget Master's colorful feathers... Moreover, Ryan himself possessed most of the abilities provided by this pill, so he didn't need to keep it for himself.
Shrinking and flying, he could transform into a fox, or he could invite Cloud Retainer to possess him.
Controlling flames could also be achieved by inviting the Pyro Yaksha Indarias, and his own tail already possessed immortality and Qilin power.
Only communicating with souls remained, but Ryan was afraid of ghosts and had no need for it at all.
"So the tribulation is over now, but why did the pill need to undergo tribulation?"
Lumine finished his roasted meat, wiped his hands, and then stood up to ask Ryan curiously, his gaze lingering for a moment on the pill in Ryan's hand, which was still emitting a faint colorful glow.
He couldn't imagine what purpose striking a pill with lightning could serve, and even if it had a purpose, what was the principle behind it?
"Hmm, how should I put it... you can understand it as body tempering for the pill. Some powerful monsters will attract lightning to temper their bodies, making them stronger."
Ryan also didn't know the specific details of how the lightning tribulation changed the pill, so he could only explain it this way.
"I see, but the lightning tribulation certainly looked spectacular."
Lumine nodded, half-understanding.
Then he released Lime, whom Ryan had just thrown at him, from the Serenitea Pot.
At this time, Lime had not fully digested and absorbed the Electro element, and was inflated like a hot air balloon.
"He's so big, and soft. Maybe he'd be quite comfortable as a bed..."
Ryan patted Lime's body and found that he was much softer after expanding.
At his original size, his body was relatively solid; although made of Slime, it was similar to nougat, offering considerable resistance when kneaded.
Otherwise, if completely soft, a Slime would have difficulty moving.
Now, after expanding, he was like a water-filled balloon, soft and squishy, with a very pleasant feel when pressed, and he would deform with just a slight press...