AWB Chapter 162 Dain, it's a good thing you didn't know.
Chapter 162 Dain, it's a good thing you didn't know.
"Between the Clouds" —
Wendy: "..."
Xuan Qing: "..."
When Kong followed Zhongli to the entrance of Xuanqing and Xuanyue's cave, what he saw was Xuanqing with his arms crossed and expressionless, staring angrily at Wendy across from him.
"What...what happened? Did you two have a fight?"
Paimon's baffling guess was echoed by the two parties involved.
Xuan Qing remained expressionless: "No."
Wendy seemed to have calmed down, and with a heavy sigh, she shook her head and said, "I'd like to argue, but look at this expressionless face, it's no wonder we can't have an argument."
"Poet, if you can't speak, you can shut your mouth." Xuan Qing's smile contained a hidden coldness, which startled the great Wind God.
"Alright, alright, then give me a barrel of wine to drink. I was exhausted the other day dealing with those devices in the Abyss..."
"Who knew your teleportation location would be so random! It made me travel back and forth between Liyue and Mondstadt so many times!"
"I'm so exhausted, I can't even fly now."
As Wendy spoke, tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill over, making her look incredibly pitiful.
Xuan Qing (feeling guilty): "..." (It seems so...)
Zhongli: "???" (What did I miss?)
Sora/Paimon (=tェt=): (Although it's not the first time, I still want to say: Is this thing really the wind god?)
Seeing that they remained unmoved, Wendy took out her harp and began to play a mournful tune, saying with a sob, "Waaah... they didn't care about me at all, and no one cared about me afterwards. I worked myself to the bone and couldn't even get a drink... Why is my life so miserable..."
Zhongli's lips twitched slightly, and he could only look at Xuanqing with pleading eyes, hoping that he would speak up and stop this person from disgracing the gods.
Xuanqing received Zhongli's pleading look. Not to mention Zhongli, even he himself felt ashamed of this guy.
"Alright Barbatos, I still have some supplies in my cave. Xuan Yue won't be back for a while, so let Morax take you to get them."
"Really?" Wendy stopped crying instantly, and his tears were wiped away. If it weren't for the tear stains at the corners of his eyes, you wouldn't have been able to tell that he had just been crying.
Xuan Qing (facepalm): "Really. Morax, you take him there. I'll talk to the Traveler and the others first."
Zhongli nodded: "Okay, but still be careful..."
"understood."
"?" Paimon and Kong exchanged bewildered glances. "It's just a chat, why is Zhongli making it sound so... um..."
"Nervous?" Kong Jie added to Paimon's question.
Paimon: "Yes."
Seeing that Zhongli and Wendy had already walked far away, Xuanqing called out, "Come and sit down."
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect Barbatos to be here so early. I'm sorry you had to see this."
Kong and Paimon both shook their heads and took their seats, indicating that they did not mind.
Sora: "Are you feeling any better lately?"
Xuan Qing: "...Of course it's much better, otherwise I wouldn't have called you out."
Paimon: "Hehe, that's true. But, judging from what you just said, Qingyue, Jin Xuan won't be back anytime soon? What's he doing?"
"He's in Sumeru. Hmm—you'll all be going to Sumeru to take risks sooner or later, so I'll tell you some things to be on guard early."
"Before going to Inazuma, A-Yuki and I made a special trip to Sumeru City because of some questions."
"It sounds like something's wrong over there." Sora's first reaction was that something was amiss.
“No, quite the opposite, it’s just too peaceful.” Xuanqing shook his head and pointed out the strangeness: “Although Barbatos does not appear in Mondstadt in his true form, and Balzebub does not often appear in public, you should occasionally hear people talking about the gods when you walk around the city.”
"But looking at Sumeru City, the discussions and news about the current Grass God are unknown to outsiders. Judging from the records reported by the Chamber of Commerce and various places, when negotiating with various regions or on important matters such as law, their main controller is not a god, but the main institution—the Council of Religious Orders."
Paimon: “!”
Kong began thoughtfully, "You mean..."
"No, there is no conclusion yet. My perception of the outside world is still limited, so I don't know if the situation on Sumeru has changed."
Xuanqing gave a negative answer. Although he had some guesses, he believed that giving such an unverifiable idea without actual evidence would lead them astray.
So he still concealed part of the truth.
Unfortunately, he is now powerless to verify all of this.
"You will know the mystery of Mount Sumeru when you get there. But that's not the topic we're discussing today."
Xuanqing turned his gaze to Kong: "Traveler, speak your question."
"...Back then, we saw a purification device developed by the 'Abyss Order' in the Abyss of Layered Rocks. But why couldn't that device remove the curse? Instead, it caused their souls to dissipate..."
Why have those Kanriyans... fallen to this state?
"..." Xuan Qing remained silent for a long time before finally uttering the original words he had used to admonish the Seven Gods.
"A land without gods, a cataclysmic disaster, a blood-red sky, mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Demons and gods emerge in droves, never to return."
“The heavens have decreed that the nation will perish; divine punishment is imminent, and calamity will befall humanity; none of the nations can escape it.”
"Only through the myriad lights and shadows of butterflies can one know the movement of the game and the conclusion of the game."
Paimon: "What do you mean?"
"I witnessed the great war that took place 500 years ago, a thousand years ago. The battle was so fierce that it led to a change in the current Seven Gods."
"One of the main reasons for that war was that members of Kanria allied with the 'Abyss.'"
"So...it wasn't the gods who intended to destroy Kanria?"
Paimon expressed his confusion, remaining silent.
He is struggling.
The "Abyss Cult" is connected to the "Abyss," and his sister joined them, so—
"Don't worry about your sister, the Abyss can't hurt her yet."
Xuanqing saw the worry in his eyes, and it was obvious what he was thinking.
"As for your previous question, why the 'purification device' couldn't purify it, it's because this so-called curse was planted on them to suppress the spread of the abyss."
"The power of the abyss is intertwined with their souls; to remove it, the only option is to forcibly separate them. The method of 'curse' was chosen to save their lives."
Paimon: "So that's how it is... Wait, Kiyotsuki, how do you know all this?"
Xuanqing reached out to pour himself a cup of tea, but then paused, realizing he couldn't actually touch the objects. He could only helplessly withdraw his hand and answer Paimon's question.
"Hmm? I thought I'd been clear enough. Because the 'undying curse' on them was cast by me."
Empty Σ( ° △ °|||)︴：（I've finally gotten to the person in question, I'm doomed!）
Paimon (⊙x⊙;): (Thank goodness Dain isn't here!)