No matter what was happening with Azar and Sumeru.
Jiang Xuan returned to the house at the foot of Mt. Tianheng with Nahida and Xiao.
After arranging a room for Nahida, he prepared to take her to the Minecraft World.
Nahida kept looking towards The Chasm.
More precisely, she was looking towards Sumeru.
Jiang Xuan walked over with a smile, patting Nahida's head.
"As a hostage, you should have the awareness of a hostage. You should be worried about yourself now, not about Sumeru."
"Anyway, don't the Sages think they can handle the situation in Sumeru? Let them handle it then."
Nahida pouted grumpily, staring at Jiang Xuan and mumbling:
"According to Jiang Xuan, as a kidnapper, you should also have the awareness of a kidnapper, right? Why arrange a place for me to stay?"
"Don't tell me, Jiang Xuan plans to let me stay here forever and harbor ill intentions towards me?"
Hearing this, Jiang Xuan seemed to have heard a funny story.
He shook his head and chuckled, saying nothing more, just gesturing at Nahida's height and teasing:
"If we ignore Nahida's age, we should look more like father and daughter."
Nahida instantly wrinkled her small face, looking at Jiang Xuan indignantly.
"How rude! Although I'm only five hundred years old, still very young compared to other Archons, I'm much older than Jiang Xuan, aren't I?"
Unfortunately, this might work on others.
But Jiang Xuan was a complete aesthetics-driven person.
In his eyes, Ganyu and Ningguang, who had lived for thousands of years, were the same age.
Zhongli and he were the same age.
Nahida and Klee were also the same age.
Anyway, walking around Teyvat, you could probably run into an immortal who always looked young.
Age was really nothing worth caring about.
Moreover, Nahida had been imprisoned and hadn't experienced the growth that years should have given her.
Jiang Xuan had already clearly seen in his dream that Nahida was a cute loli with a very young mindset.
Rubbing Nahida's elf ears, Jiang Xuan reminded her:
"Later, I'll take you to my world. However, the Liyue base there is currently under attack, so I'll introduce it to you slowly later."
"I've promised you a flower chariot and a garden. I have the materials, and we'll plan and build them together later."
"Besides that, there's one more thing... Rex Lapis Morax, now going by the name Zhongli, is also inside."
Hearing this, Nahida immediately became nervous.
She looked at Jiang Xuan with some worry.
After all, strictly speaking, she had violated the Seven Archons' Contract by presumptuously extending her divine power into Liyue territory.
Even Barbatos, who was also an ancient Archon, respected the prestige of the oldest Archon, the Martial God of Teyvat.
Let alone her, the Dendro Archon who was reborn five hundred years ago and imprisoned for five hundred years.
Nahida secretly grabbed Jiang Xuan's hand, feeling a bit nervous.
Jiang Xuan smiled, looking at the already constructed Dual-World Gate, and whispered:
"Zhongli is a very good person, apart from being a bit old-fashioned and melancholic. He knows your situation and has said you can temporarily reside in Liyue."
"What I want to say is, that guy is currently absorbed in his identity as Zhongli, so you absolutely mustn't expose his true identity."
"Dragons have very small hearts!"
Jiang Xuan maliciously slandered Zhongli, while Xiao next to him felt a little awkward.
Honestly, if Jiang Xuan and Zhongli weren't good friends and his benefactor,
Xiao would definitely have taught him to respect the Archon.
But since Zhongli himself placed Jiang Xuan on equal footing with him, Xiao didn't need to worry about anything.
He just pretended not to hear.
Anyway, Zhongli and Jiang Xuan had bickered more than once over the fishing competition.
Xiao felt that his Archon enjoyed this kind of equal, even impolite, interaction.
Hmm...
Xiao didn't understand, but the Archon's actions had their own reasons!
As the Dual-World Gate fully materialized, Nahida could only temporarily put her worries about Sumeru aside.
She followed Jiang Xuan into that magical world.
As soon as she entered, Nahida discovered that it seemed to be a beautiful place, similar to her dreams.
She had seen those square trees in her dreams, so she wasn't too surprised.
Of course, coming to this world was still very magical.
Not far ahead was a huge fortress city.
Strange stones were stacked very high, and outside, two giant Iron Golems walked around.
The scenery of this world made Nahida feel a sense of happiness, like returning home.
"Jiang Xuan!"
Before Nahida could see more of the scenery, a joyful shout came from the watchtower.
Immediately after, a beautiful maiden leaped down, spreading her Wind Glider and flying swiftly towards Jiang Xuan.
Jiang Xuan also smiled, opening his arms and hugging the flying Ganyu.
He expertly rubbed Ganyu's horns and kissed her.
At this moment, Nahida's originally happy and lively mood instantly became worse than being imprisoned for five hundred years.
Her small face also wrinkled up.
"How's the base? Has the attack arrived?"
Hearing this, Ganyu happily narrowed her eyes and shook her head:
"No! Everything's normal! The fortifications are almost finished, and everyone is waiting for you to come back and check!"
Jiang Xuan said nothing more, just pulled Ganyu and pointed at Nahida, whispering:
"Let me introduce you, this is my good friend I've always talked about, Nahida."
Ganyu turned to look and saw a very pretty loli with elf ears.
But for some reason, the loli looked at her with some resistance.
Ganyu didn't think much of it, only assuming it was her imagination.
As for Nahida being jealous...
That was too absurd!
She looked like a child, how could she have such thoughts?
Ganyu knelt down and, with a gentle smile, rubbed Nahida's head, saying softly:
"Hello, Nahida, I'm Ganyu... Jiang Xuan has mentioned you before. Since you're his good friend, you're my good friend too."
Hearing this, Nahida's mood improved a little.
Regardless, having a new friend was something worth being happy about in Nahida's five hundred years.
But...
She was still a bit displeased.
Nahida didn't answer immediately, and Ganyu just assumed Nahida was shy.
She looked at Jiang Xuan curiously, her gaze asking where he brought Nahida from.
Jiang Xuan chuckled softly and said:
"I forgot to mention, Nahida is the current Dendro Archon, Lesser Lord Kusanali."
"..."
Ganyu froze, glancing at her hand still resting on Nahida's head.
"Aigh!!!"
...
In the temporary combat briefing room of the base.
Everyone sat on wooden sofas, and Ningguang and the others looked at Jiang Xuan with strange expressions, then at Nahida, who was quietly sitting on his lap.
Among them, Ganyu was the most embarrassed.
She had just...
Rubbed the head of the Archon of Sumeru, Lesser Lord Kusanali, Nahida...
It was truly a more glorious moment than when she choked a demon god.
"So..."
Ningguang rubbed her temples and said softly:
"Just now, you went out, trashed the Sumeru Akademiya, left three zombies, and kidnapped Her Grace Nahida?"
Before Jiang Xuan could say anything, Nahida proactively said:
"Jiang Xuan was worried about me... it was all because of me. Also, if you don't mind, just call me Nahida."
"You are Jiang Xuan's friends, so you are my friends too!"
Jiang Xuan laughed softly.
Nahida, who had just been somewhat resentful of Jiang Xuan trashing the Sumeru Akademiya, now actively defended him when Ningguang brought it up.
However, Jiang Xuan didn't think there was any need for defense.
He nodded calmly:
"That's right, I trashed the Sumeru Akademiya and completely destroyed the Grand Sage's experimental base. Whether he's still alive is another matter."
"But it was deserved."
Jiang Xuan leisurely combed Nahida's hair, speaking softly:
"A bunch of ungrateful, unreflective guys who only seek knowledge from the gods and don't know how to seek knowledge themselves, calling themselves the citizens of wisdom."
"That's truly disgusting."
"I don't think there's any problem with trashing the Sumeru Akademiya. To take it one step further, I was avenging my friend."
"I guess the law that might makes right also applies in Teyvat, right?"
Jiang Xuan chuckled and showed his fist.
"In that case, this was an act of divine retribution."
Hearing this, Ningguang and the others smiled wryly and shook their heads.
But they had nothing to say about Jiang Xuan's actions.
In fact, deep down, they all thought it was a good trashing.
After spending some time with Nahida, everyone discovered that Nahida was a gentle and lovely girl.
Even disregarding Nahida's identity as the Dendro Archon, simply the fact that such a girl was imprisoned by the Sages for five hundred years.
That alone was an enormous sin.
Those people deserved to be hacked to pieces.
"So, Jiang Xuan, you were so angry those days because you learned about Nahida's plight..."
Ganyu sighed, looking at Nahida with a bit more pity.
"Nahida never told me these things."
Jiang Xuan smiled and shook his head, pinching Nahida's cheek.
"When she entered my dream, she used the alias Daxina and never mentioned being imprisoned."
"She even, this little silly goose, kept thinking it was because she was unqualified and unfit to be the god of Sumeru, willingly staying imprisoned for five hundred years."
"Otherwise, how could a mere group of Sages have the ability to imprison a god? Even if the Sanctuary of Surasthana had remnants of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's divine power."
Hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.
They were well aware of the power of a god.
Even if Nahida wasn't the original Archon, a demon god was still a demon god.
Even if someone was a Genshin capable of ascending to Celestia, before becoming a god, they would always be a different life form than a demon god.
This was an inequality of status, and all means were useless against it.
Nahida truly was willingly sealed for five hundred years.
Thinking of this, the dissatisfaction in everyone's hearts towards the Sumeru Akademiya grew deeper.
"No wonder the Sumeru Akademiya recently expanded its procurement of various materials by several times, it was for this..."
Ningguang snorted coldly.
"After this, I will demand a restructuring of Liyue's business cooperation with the Sumeru Akademiya. Any materials, sold at three times the price!"
Nahida opened her mouth, intending to persuade Ningguang, because even if the Sumeru Akademiya was wrong, it was only a few individuals who were wrong.
It wasn't necessary to suppress them completely.
But Jiang Xuan said faintly:
"They weren't expanding procurement because they imprisoned Nahida. The Grand Sage is conducting an even more blasphemous experiment."
"He wants to create a god...".
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