Nahida can accept being imprisoned by the Great Sages, but she cannot accept her people being tormented by this matter.
So she has tried hard, tried very early on; even now, she is still working hard to search.
But she just can't find anything; no matter how Nahida searches, she can't find the relevant content!
She can only watch her people being tormented by Eleazar, heartbroken.
At first, Nahida thought it was because she wasn't qualified enough, but now Nahida knows that it was because the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was there.
The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata is already dead, but she can't die either.
In itself, Archons are immortal, and the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata is even more special; she is the embodiment of Irminsul.
Besides deleting her, the only way is to burn Irminsul and let Irminsul 'die'—only then will she 'die.'
From a normal person's perspective, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata is already dead; she cannot leave Irminsul and cannot influence the outside world—it's no different from returning to the ley lines.
So the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata knows about Nahida's experiences, but she is powerless.
However, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's consciousness exists within Irminsul; on the matter of 'forbidden knowledge,' she can protect Nahida from being tainted.
Now, Nahida's permissions to the Akasha and Irminsul are both incomplete; the root cause is the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's protection—she has shielded the polluted parts of Irminsul.
Without the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, if she accidentally saw forbidden knowledge while searching Irminsul, it would all be over.
Even to prevent any mishaps, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata cannot let Nahida sense her existence, since she has long been eroded by 'forbidden knowledge.'
This leads to Nahida not knowing at all why she can't search, thinking it's due to her own lack of ability.
Now, Nahida already understands what's going on; after all, Lucian wrote the line 'The world, forget me' in the book.
Ordinary people might not guess it, but Nahida immediately guessed who said that line; she just hasn't understood yet why it was said.
Nahida also didn't go to Irminsul to search and look, because she knows the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata hiding herself must have a reason; rashly searching would backfire.
As for how Tighnari knows these things? This is actually something his ancestor heard from the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's dependents.
That's right, the magical Aranara told Tighnari's ancestor about Irminsul.
Tighnari also says that those magical beings don't know how to heal Irminsul either.
This truly makes the people of Sumeru feel quite heavy; humanity's incurable disease and Irminsul's incurable disease—how did they all have to run into them...
This thing is still Sumeru-exclusive; people from other regions can't 'enjoy' it.
Great Sages, Eleazar, Withering—does your country have such 'great' things?
Fortunately, the heavy topics in the story stop here; after resolving the Withering, Tighnari returns to Gandharva Ville with the Traveler.
Just back, they receive a letter from Haypasia again—truly no moment of idleness.
The content on the letter is three lines; Tighnari explains: it means Haypasia has been hungry for three days.
The reason he can understand is that this isn't the first time; last time Haypasia drew five lines—draw five lines, figure it out yourself.
Arataki Itto: "Three lines means hungry for three days; then wouldn't Nine-Tails the turtle be hungry for nine days? Hahaha, still have the nerve to say this great me!"
This is also good that Cyno isn't next to Itto; otherwise, he'd have to praise him no matter what.
["I have some emergency food here; can you help me bring it to her?" Tighnari says to the Traveler.]
Though he says so, Tighnari isn't in a hurry; isn't it just hungry for three days? It's not too bad yet; before, she was hungry for five days and didn't die—very starvation-resistant.
Because he's not in a hurry, Tighnari even chats with the Traveler about the 'hallucination' before the Traveler sets off.
Tighnari admits frankly that he did deceive the Traveler before; that actually wasn't a hallucination, but the Traveler's consciousness connected to Irminsul.
Because this isn't a small matter, Tighnari chose to conceal it before confirming the Traveler was one of their own.
After many days of interaction, the Traveler is friend not foe, so naturally, he must be honest and prepare to disarm.
It might really be the disarmament that causes trouble; Tighnari is also 'outshining the master,' and the Great Sages will want to get rid of Tighnari later, but that's a later story.
In any case, after a bout of honesty, Tighnari has prepared the food and letter; the letter can be held by Paimon, but the food must be held by the Traveler.
You know Paimon's type; if you let her hold it, by the time you arrive, half the food inside might be gone.
In the story, the Traveler and Paimon come to the cave where they previously encountered Haypasia, but find it empty of people.
The two split up to search; Lumine goes inside the cave, Paimon goes outside the cave.
Then, the Traveler inside the cave finds Haypasia and encounters a cute creature—the cucumber spirit!
It's the radish spirit Nahida's dependent—the Aranara:
The Aranara in the illustration: a green body round and plump, the two green leaves on its head looking quite healthy.
Mainly, its short legs and big butt make it waddle when walking—adorably like a corgi's butt.
At this time, the readers still don't know this is the Dendro God's dependent; they just think this thing is extremely cute, completely could become the new emergency food.
Just right, Paimon isn't here now; inexplicably, it feels like sneaking a snack, the mascot's position is slipping away.
The Aranara sees the Traveler and gets really startled, jumping up; by the time it lands, it's already disappeared.
Like a little ginseng fruit, meets earth and enters, burrows and runs.
The Aranara ran, and only then does Paimon arrive late.
Haypasia is lying in the cave, already starved to weakness, but strangely, right beside her are placed fruits.
["Ugh... ugh ugh... so hungry... cough cough... water..." Haypasia weakly.]
["Seems more spirited than imagined," the Traveler.]
Just saying, Lumine usually doesn't like talking, but every time she speaks, it's a big one.
Haypasia is starved like this, and she still says the other has spirit.
But indeed, she can still talk; no big problem—this situation hasn't reached the point where Hu Tao needs to step in, worthy of a woman who can starve for five days.
However, this scene feels a bit familiar to everyone; seems like they've seen similar words on Mona?
You guys doing academic research, are you all like this? How are you even more starved than Arataki Itto?
In any case, Haypasia is really starved too long; even eating is strenuous, so first find some water for her to drink.
The Traveler plans to go out to find water, but discovers that outside the cave entrance is a whole other world.
Endless huge vines, large flowers budding to bloom, paired with the blue sky—as if walking into the wrong set and arriving in a fairy tale world.
The scene is beautiful, but no one is in the mood to appreciate it, because it's obvious—the Traveler has hallucinated again.
Damn, is it illusion? When?!
Rather than asking when the illusion happened, better ask: since when did you get the illusion that I wasn't using Mirror Flower Water Moon?