When the massive Fulong Tree retracted into the ground like a python, Orion already sensed something was wrong. Then, a dragon's roar echoed from beneath, and the ground suddenly began to cave in as if the foundation had been hollowed out.
Something was about to burst out of the earth!
"Everyone, watch out! Something's coming out!" Keqing and Hu Tao hurriedly called for the people around them to retreat and avoid that area. However, some Millelith had already moved in, and there were many workers who had been brainwashed into digging tunnels there; this sudden ground collapse essentially buried their hopes for survival.
Keqing's actions preceded his thoughts. The moment he saw the ground collapsing, a hairpin appeared in his hand.
This hairpin was the marker for his Elemental Skill. For example, it was similar to the Flying Thunder God Kunai thrown by the Fourth Hokage. Keqing could mark a location by throwing the hairpin and then use the high-speed nature of the Electro element to teleport there instantly.
The situation was urgent, and he didn't even have time to plan in his mind. His responsibility as one of the Seven Stars of Liyue spurred him on. The hairpin, wreathed in purple electrical arcs, was already hurled out—he would save as many as he could!
Elemental Skill activated. Keqing's body vanished from the spot instantly, only to reappear in the exact same place.
"Eh?" Keqing stared blankly at his surroundings. He had clearly thrown the hairpin; why did he teleport back to where he started?
Just then, a hand reached out and stuffed the hairpin back into his hand.
"It's too dangerous. Stay with Hu Tao; I'll handle things over there."
Keqing looked up, only to see the back of Orion as he dashed away.
Being in the thick of it, he couldn't see the whole picture, but Hu Tao standing nearby saw everything clearly. The moment Keqing threw the hairpin and activated his Elemental Skill, Orion had suddenly flashed to the hairpin's side, grabbed it, and flashed back to the starting point. Naturally, Keqing's teleportation followed it back.
So fast!
Looking ahead, Orion had changed back into his previous red clothes. Now, combined with his ultra-fast movement speed, he looked like a red silk ribbon weaving rapidly through the collapsing rocks!
Watching Orion quickly save one person after another, Keqing subconsciously covered his mouth. "What a fast man!"
"He won't be happy if you say it like that."
"Ah?" Keqing clearly didn't understand Hu Tao's meaning, but that didn't stop more and more people from being transported to safety by Orion.
While Orion was cosplaying as the Flash, a scream from high above suddenly caught his attention. He looked up and saw a character who shouldn't have appeared at this point in time enter his field of vision.
"Jahoda?!" Orion was startled. After confirming there were no remaining Millelith or workers, he quickly ran up the rock face and caught the falling Damselette in his arms.
After Jahoda realized she was safe, she looked at Orion pitifully and then hugged him, crying loudly. She babbled about how good people are rewarded and wanting to offer herself in marriage, leaving Orion utterly stunned.
At that very moment, a massive, thick dragon claw reached out from the huge cavern of the Fulong Tree. It pushed upward with great force. As more rocks collapsed, a giant dragon head wearing a golden crown appeared before everyone.
As the dragon head continued to emerge from the ground, the hands of some nearby Millelith holding their spears began to tremble.
"No way... My Lord of Geo..."
Sweat seeped from their palms, and they could barely hold their spears steady. The soldiers felt a sense of powerlessness looking at the scene before them.
It was a colossal creature whose two horns alone were dozens of meters tall.
The massive head was taller than any building in Liyue Harbor. The dragon's eyes glowed with a red light. The pair of golden crowns should have been the symbol of a Dragon King, but now, for some reason, they were entangled with something like ordinary plant roots, and thick black energy was constantly spewing out.
Orion couldn't help but widen his eyes. "Is it really contaminated? Did my Big Bro Azhdaha suffer erosion underground and absorb all the Forbidden Knowledge?"
This Forbidden Knowledge from Sumeru was practically a specialized attack against the eroded and dazed Old Azhdaha. Azhdaha had been a martial general in Liyue his whole life; when had he ever seen this? For a giant Geovishap, facing Sumeru's knowledge was like a lizard meeting an Indian man.
Brutally indoctrinated!
In his arms, Jahoda's small hands suddenly gripped Orion's clothes. "So... so scary!"
Orion looked at the person in his arms again. This one too—speaking of Jahoda, she was a character released after Orion had quit Genshin Impact in his previous life and started a new game called Genshin Impact: Song of the Empty Moon.
Her legend was known to everyone in the MiHoYo Universe.
In the Moonhunter Crusade, Jahoda fired an arrow to clash with the Moonhunter. Because her power was too strong and she feared it would affect the Damselette Columbina behind him, he narrowly lost. The Moonhunter bragged about this for a lifetime.
On Earth, the power of this arrow was said to be able to shatter stars. It was learned by Durandal, who possessed the Innate Saintly Body and Dao Embryo, and she became a Gold Saint.
On the Xianzhou, the Reignbow Arbiter was promoted to Aeon because his posture when drawing a bow was so similar to Jahoda's. Having learned only ten or twenty percent of Jahoda's power, he could use gravity as a string and stars as arrows.
The aftershock of Jahoda's arrow supposedly reached other universes, making it impossible for the Will of the Stigmata to stay in its original universe, forcing it to go mess with Honkai Gakuen 2's Earth.
The Progenitor was said to have been blown apart by a single arrow from Jahoda. Later, some people obtained fragments of the Progenitor, but because they feared Jahoda, they didn't dare make the fragments into bows. Instead, they forged the Demon Blade and the Qingming Sword just to avoid suspicion!
This big shot's entry into the gacha pool was a long way off from the Liyue plot of version 1.1—it must be over five years away, right?
How could a character from a major version five years in the future suddenly appear here?
Just then, another voice came from nearby.
"All soldiers, hear my command! Split off a small squad to care for the unconscious and take them as far from the combat zone as possible. The rest, form ranks and face the enemy!"
It was Keqing. At the critical moment, it was him who stepped forward to stabilize the army's morale.
Hu Tao also approached Keqing. "Keqing, this giant dragon hasn't broken free from the ground yet. Why don't we take this chance to wear it down?"
Keqing's eyes lit up, and he immediately called out to those behind him, "Where is the messenger?"
"Here!"
"Go as fast as possible and tell Ningguang about the situation here. We can't stall for much longer."
"Yes, sir!"
After the messenger left, Keqing immediately shouted to the other Millelith, "Such a colossus is definitely not something we can contend with. However, once we retreat, this dragon will likely charge straight into Liyue Harbor. Therefore, we must not retreat a single step!"
"Since we must fight, we cannot wait for this dragon to completely break free from the earth's shackles! A complete dragon is definitely not something we can match, but since it hasn't broken free yet, we must interfere before it crawls out from underground! We must never let this demonic dragon fully reach the surface!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
The Millelith's roars shook the heavens. They quickly formed multiple arrays, with the melee units moving forward first to restrain it, while the ranged units tried to deal DMG using weapons with higher lethality.
Orion carried Jahoda to Hu Tao's side. He looked at Keqing. Keqing's meaning was clear: a dragon that had completely crawled out from underground would surely be hard to deal with, but right now Azhdaha only had one head and one front claw out. It clearly wasn't very mobile, so why not take the chance to hit it a few more times!
A battle to suppress Azhdaha was actually turned into the first phase of a giant boss fight by Keqing.
And Azhdaha really was that kind of boss. Because his body had many structures like ordinary rocks, and his belly was unusually large, his terrifying size destined him to be unable to easily escape from the underground where seals had been applied.
Having lost most of his sanity and just having broken the seal, he happened to be temporarily unable to control his Elemental Power, giving Keqing a great opportunity.
With Jahoda clinging to his arm, Orion looked at his quest list.
#A character in the current quest is occupied by another quest. Please clear the occupied status to continue.
Character occupied? Orion's scalp tingled. In this situation, could it be judged as Zhongli's Story Quest Part II, so Zhongli must be present?
The entirety of Liyue Harbor was in a state of chaos.
Meanwhile, Lumine had already arrived at the Golden House and seen the hidden Exuvia.
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