"We are willing to follow the Lord of Geo!"
The humans kneeling on the ground shouted loudly toward Morax, the God of Geo in the sky.
Morax briefly counted their numbers—there were a little over two thousand people.
Bringing this many people back to Liyue in winter meant that supplies and housing would inevitably be tight.
But he couldn't simply abandon them here.
At worst, he could ask Zennos to manifest some necessities so they could survive this winter.
The humans from the Wind and Sand Demon God's territory packed up their belongings, gathered what little food they had left, and assembled together.
Then, under the protection of the God of Geo, Morax, they began their journey toward Liyue.
To ensure their safe arrival, Morax had to escort them the entire way.
Otherwise, if they ran into wild beasts, these defenseless humans would become nothing more than a feast.
In the blink of an eye, a day passed.
Back in Liyue, Aether still hadn't seen Morax return.
But he wasn't worried in the slightest.
After all, Morax was the strongest force in all of Liyue. Unless several demon gods joined forces to attack him, it would be very difficult to threaten him.
And this wasn't the era of the Demon God War yet. Morax's existence hadn't become a threat that would unite other demon gods against him.
Without a shared threat or objective, demon gods naturally wouldn't band together.
So Aether guessed that Morax had most likely already finished off the Wind and Sand Demon God and was now escorting the humans from that territory back to Liyue.
Humans only had two legs to walk on, and they needed to rest at night. Aether estimated that without a full week, Morax probably wouldn't make it back.
One week later—
Under Morax's leadership, more than two thousand humans finally arrived in Liyue from the former territory of the Wind and Sand Demon God.
But Liyue simply didn't have space to house so many people.
Who would build that many empty houses for no reason?
No one would ever do that.
To solve the housing problem for these two thousand people, Morax originally planned to directly create stone houses using Geo power.
But that would clearly be unfair to Liyue's original residents.
Why should these newcomers receive stone houses personally built by a god, while the original people still lived in thatched huts?
That would obviously be unfair.
Yet housing was a matter of survival in winter and could not be delayed.
Otherwise, many among these two thousand people would fall ill from the cold.
In an era without developed medicine, even a small cold could be fatal.
"Morax? Shouldn't you be arranging housing for those people? Why are you here with me?" Aether asked.
…Morax fell silent for three seconds before finally speaking.
"Settling two thousand people is indeed troublesome. Housing alone is already difficult to resolve."
"If they have no shelter from the cold, most of them will likely perish from illness during this winter."
Morax looked at Aether as he spoke.
Aether wasn't foolish—he immediately understood Morax's intention.
"So you want me to step in and help solve the housing problem?" Aether asked.
Morax replied, "If you're unwilling, I won't force you."
He knew this was a favor he was asking of Aether.
"Since they've joined Liyue, they're Liyue's people. And aren't Liyue's people also my people?"
"Do I look like the kind of demon god who would let his people sleep out in the open during winter?"
Aether smiled at Morax.
Since he had chosen to stay in Liyue, he naturally had to shoulder some responsibility as a demon god.
Though most of the time, he still preferred lying flat.
After all, if he did too much and stayed too busy, he worried he'd end up becoming someone like Zhongli—boring and worn-out—so he decided to lie flat in advance.
That way, he wouldn't turn into Zhongli later.
Yes. Very reasonable, wasn't it?
After agreeing to Morax's request, Aether went before the two thousand-plus humans.
At first, seeing Aether's youthful appearance, they thought he was just a handsome young man, unable to sense any divine presence from him at all.
Only when white light from the Authority of Manifestation appeared at Aether's fingertips did they realize what was happening.
"Greetings, Lord God!"
The crowd immediately knelt and bowed.
Aether had long grown accustomed to such scenes.
He could now face mass worship without any change in expression.
Aether nodded calmly.
Then he got to work.
First, he quickly sketched out in his mind the design of a small thatched house suitable for a family, adding a certain degree of cold resistance.
The first hut appeared before everyone.
After that, it was simple.
Aether began his copy-and-paste marathon, manifesting house after house until there were enough to accommodate all two thousand-plus people.
The crowd stared in stunned silence as Aether constructed so many thatched houses out of thin air on the empty land.
This… was the greatness of a god?!
"Thank you for the god's blessing!"
"Thank you for the god's blessing!"
"We will forever remember the god's grace!"
Some among the crowd were already in tears.
This was the first time they had felt true care from a god since living under the Wind and Sand Demon God.
So gods didn't only bring sandstorms and suffering—
they could also provide shelter and protection.
They would forever remember this divine kindness.
Uh…
Only then did some of them realize they didn't even know this god's name yet.
But by the time they reacted, Aether had already returned to Morax's side, firmly adhering to his personal principle of finishing work and never working overtime.
"Perfectly completed the task!" Aether said cheerfully, clapping his hands.
"Morax, shouldn't you express something now?"
Aether blinked exaggeratedly at Morax.
…Morax froze.
He honestly didn't know what he was supposed to say.
Offer thanks?
"How about sparring with me in sword practice?" Aether suddenly made a request.
He simply thought wielding a sword looked really cool.
Whether or not it was practical didn't matter—learning it first was always good.
If he ran into a powerful enemy he couldn't beat, he'd throw out a small fireball.
If that still wasn't enough, then he'd just drop a nuke.
Nukes were so convenient—after all, they weren't even elemental power, just a bunch of "ordinary" materials gathered together to create massive destructive force.
Sure, some of those materials didn't exist in Teyvat.
But Aether was a human from Earth, and his Authority of Manifestation also originated from Earth.
Knowing a bit of Earth–exclusive "martial artistry"—
that was perfectly reasonable, right?
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