Genshin Impact: A Mortal's Ascension to Godhood

Darkness of the Heart

What is the essence of alchemy?

Some people say that the essence of alchemy is equal exchange. But in fact, there is absolutely no equal exchange without preconditions in the world.

The people of Liyue are very clear about this. Transactions are not equivalent, but are based on the Liyue contract; society is not free, but is based on the rules jointly formulated by the seven stars and eight gates. Of course, Li Tao is also very clear about these things, because he was monitored by the Liyue government as soon as he awakened the Eye of God after traveling through time. Although he is now "devoting himself to the Liyue Adventurer Association" on the surface, Li Tao actually understands that as long as he dares to resign and "escape", he will probably be hunted down by Liyue soon. Of course, the people of Liyue are stubborn and may not kill him, but they always want Li Tao to be a cow and horse for Liyue for the rest of his life.

Whether it was the loss of life or the loss of freedom, it was hard for Li Tao to accept. But now, he could only accept everything at the moment and do something that was neither against his will nor in his heart...

We have strayed off topic, let’s get back to alchemy.

What does unequal transactions mean? It means that at both ends of the alchemical process, there must be the creation of new substances or the wear and tear of old substances, accompanied by the exchange of two main substances.

Take [Baked Jade] as an example. In the world of Teyvat, the manufacture of [Baked Jade] does not require painstaking efforts to find the configuration ratio of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. You only need to fill them into the alchemical instrument and let them react while keeping the alchemical process stable, and then you can make a powerful [Baked Jade] shell. The risks of this process are similar to those of configuring gunpowder, because there are also risks in the process of alchemy that the materials cannot react, the materials react excessively, the elements react too violently, or the reaction fails and the elemental forces are chaotic. But compared to stable gunpowder that requires multiple attempts based on experience and scientific summaries in theory to produce, alchemy only needs to prepare the raw materials and then put them into the alchemical instrument. This greatly reduces the time cost and the waste of raw materials.

However, the reason why alchemy is more mysterious and more difficult to master is that in the process of alchemy, not only conventional materials are needed, but also some special catalysts. Or this [Baked Jade], according to Wan Ye, if you want to use alchemy to make baked jade, you also need peppers, spice fruits and even burning agate as catalysts, otherwise alchemy will inevitably fail.

After understanding these basics, Li Tao followed the people of the Sea Aid Team and finally uncovered the hidden evil deeds of the pirates, as well as the truth behind them that even required the guidance of the Rock King Emperor.

......

Less than ten minutes after the Haiyuan team entered the cave, someone discovered some sealed caves. When they moved the rocks blocking the cave entrance, an extremely strong stench wafted out. A Qianyan Army soldier led his men in to explore, and they all came out a few minutes later. The eldest brother of the Qianyan Army was relatively okay, but after seeing the scene in the cave, the others all turned pale and almost vomited. Li Tao asked curiously, and the answer he got was: "There are all human corpses inside. Some are fishermen who were captured here, and some are pirates. Most of the corpses are smelly, but they have not completely rotted."

After exploring several similar caves, Li Tao found that the conditions inside were almost exactly the same - a large number of dead bodies were thrown into the caves and sealed with stones. At the same time, the sharp-eyed team members used torches and saw traces of used alchemical formations left on the cave floor.

"Isn't this some disgusting thing like human transmutation?" Li Tao lamented in his heart. How come even the setting of Fullmetal Alchemist has appeared? Will there be a national transmutation in the future? What a disaster!

The leader of the Sea Aid Team also confirmed the specific situation - the pirates did use a large number of living people to perform alchemical rituals. But these people were very smart. They did not sneak into Liyue City and burn Liyue Harbor like their predecessors did. Instead, they chose to quietly abduct fishermen and villagers from the outskirts of Liyue, but this was already an extremely bad behavior. Perhaps it was because of this that the God of Rock could not bear it and sent a dream to the Seven Stars of Liyue. The people of Liyue were abducted and killed by pirates, which was a very bad thing for old man Zhongli.

"What on earth are these people trying to do? They have sacrificed so many lives, aren't they afraid of God's punishment?" An officer of the Marine Aid Team pointed fingers at the pirates from a moral high ground, while Li Tao just sighed: They are all pirates, where is the moral bottom line? This is not the world of One Piece, even if it is the world of One Piece, most pirates still burn, kill and rob.

Li Tao thought he was used to this kind of thing. But when he received the order to continue moving forward, he couldn't help but look back at the caves that were blocked again. There used to be many living creatures in there, but now they have all turned into piles of bones.

I can't understand it. Even though Li Tao is now a "killer" compared to when he was on Blue Star, he still can't understand how someone can treat human life as something insignificant and deal with it completely indifferently. Even Li Tao himself, when he stabbed the sword into the pirates' bodies, he still felt their anger, pain, fear, despair... and there were many emotions surging in his heart, but he tried not to think about it when he was fighting.

Wan Ye accidentally saw Li Tao's complex expression, hesitating to speak, and stepped forward to comfort him: "You don't need to blame yourself for this, adventurer. The best way to commemorate them is to kill all the pirates who kidnapped them here."

"I know. I've always known..." Li Tao said sullenly, "But Captain Wanye, I can't help but wonder, what exactly do the pirates want to gain by sacrificing so many lives?"

"We have asked ourselves this question many times." Wan Ye answered softly, "I don't know. I guess it has something to do with the demon god. Isn't it a little strange for you to ask me, a man like Inazuma, about this? Before the superiors informed me, I didn't even know about the dream of the rock god."

Li Tao glanced at him and said, "I really don't feel like I'm communicating with an Inazuma, Team Leader."

Wan Ye smiled and said, "Maybe I've adapted to the local customs... Well, cheer up and don't be so sad. You are the strongest adventurer in the vanguard of the combat team."

"There aren't any other adventurers!"

After being interrupted by Wan Ye, Li Tao felt a little better. He shook his head and temporarily put aside the negative emotions in his mind.

I can only stop thinking about those dark things for now. Li Tao thought. Although covering my eyes and pretending not to see is cowardly, it is to be stronger in the future to face all this.

At this moment, Li Tao truly felt that the resentful souls of many people were floating above the cave, looking at the marine aid team marching in the cave with sad and painful eyes.