Genshin Impact: A Mortal's Ascension to Godhood

A quarter of an hour later.

Li Tao watched as Guoba's tiny figure appeared in his sight, with a big mushroom on his head.

Although it was too far away to see the mushroom clearly, the mushroom with its roots cut off in the bamboo forest should not be difficult to find. But when he looked more closely, he saw the meaning of "panic" from Guoba's movements and expression.

Chongyun also looked into the distance curiously: "Strange, why is Guoba running so fast? It seems like he is being chased by something..."

"No, it must be being chased by something!" Kurumi lightly pressed his hat, took the spear off his back, and looked ahead vigilantly, "Someone is chasing it in secret!"

Xiangling got anxious when she heard this, and quickly picked up her weapon and ran forward: "Guoba, come here quickly!"

Before Xiangling could finish her words, a string of spinning blades appeared out of nowhere and chopped towards the rice crust with sparks.

Li Tao noticed sharply: "No... Guoba, throw away the mushroom! The other party is coming for the mushroom in your hand!"

Upon hearing this, Guoba threw the mushroom towards Li Tao and his companions, and then rolled on the ground to avoid the blade that came from nowhere.

The invisible enemy groaned in dissatisfaction, dodged and grabbed the scimitar he had thrown, and at the same time reached out to catch the mushroom that Guoba had thrown away. But Li Tao was well prepared, and the water whips around him followed him like a shadow, accurately and gracefully catching the mushroom in the air, and then throwing it backwards.

At the same time, the two girls with long weapons also attacked the flying enemies at the same time - Xiangling's self-created spear technique, Bai'an Kung Fu, and Hu Tao's Wangshengtang secret spear technique were used together, and the burning fire elements complemented each other, quickly poking at the enemy, trying to force them back. However, the enemy's body shape was strange, and the speed was much faster than the two imagined. He did not fight Xiangling and Hu Tao at all. He retreated after a missed attack and disappeared again in the firelight.

Chongyun concentrated and held his breath, carefully picked up the magic mushroom, and quickly stuffed it into the prepared cloth bag, muttering in confusion: "Who is so idle that he has to snatch things from Guoba?"

Xingqiu whispered, "Can't that mushroom be used as a raw material for [Psychedelic Seasoning]? Maybe the other party wants to steal the mushroom, make a seasoning that will appeal to everyone's taste buds, and win the [Chef Contest] at the same time."

Xiangling put away the gun, walked over, and said in surprise: "But this is against the law? [Psychedelic Seasoning] is more of an alchemical item because of its hallucinogenic and addictive properties, and cannot be used as a food ingredient. If anyone dares to use this stuff to cook, the General Affairs Department will come to your door immediately."

“But there is no specific requirement for this in the rules of the Chef Championship, right?” Li Tao guessed, recalling the regulations of the new competition system.

"Isn't this the accepted practice in the industry? Which restaurant would do a one-time deal like this? Winning a championship but losing reputation?" Xiangling said dissatisfiedly, "Just like Hall Master Hu, no matter how unreliable she is, she will not break the rules of Wangsheng Hall."

Hu Tao pretended to be sad: "Xiang Ling, am I always so out of touch? I'm really sorry for giving you such a bad impression of me."

Xiangling suddenly felt that she had said too much, and quickly bowed to Hutao with a guilty look on her face to apologize.

Li Tao crossed his arms and thought about the moves used by the unknown enemy just now - invisibility, fire element, flying knife, all these elements seemed to point to a group that Li Tao was familiar with...

If it was that group of people, maybe they really just wanted to make a quick buck and run away.

//////

"Boss, I missed."

"?" The man called the boss pointed at his subordinate who was lowering his head with an incredulous look on his face, and asked in a strange tone, "I just asked you to pick a mushroom, and you failed? Didn't I tell you all the situations and precautions about [Magic Mushrooms]? Even so, you still fell into the illusion?"

"No, Boss, listen to me..."

A few minutes later.

The boss pressed his index finger against his forehead and said, "You said you found that the mushroom was dug up by a small animal that looked like a combination of a civet cat and a raccoon. Is the owner of the mushroom a chef who is participating in the chef competition like us?"

The subordinate swore, "Yes, Boss, I am definitely not mistaken! That is the little cook of Liyue Wanmin Hall, named Xiangling. That thing is always with her, and..."

"Besides, not only the little cook, but also other people are there? The elite of the Adventurer's Association, Li Tao, the second young master of Feiyun Chamber of Commerce, Xingqiu, the exorcist, Chongyun, and the little devil leader of Wangsheng Hall?" The boss had a puzzled look on his face. "Although [Magic Mushrooms] are very precious, it is not easy to find them in advance! Where did they get the information from?"

"I don't know, boss! But they have taken away the mushrooms. What should we do now?" another subordinate asked timidly.

The boss glared at his subordinate fiercely and said, "What should we do? Without the psychedelic seasoning, how can we make up for the shortfall of this operation? By then, every one of us will be removed from our positions as [Debt Handlers] and sent to the eastern frontier to grow potatoes!"

"Damn, it's all the fault of those bankers. They said the Liyue Food Festival was a good opportunity to make money, so they invested all the money, and forced us to follow suit. But the Liyue government turned around and cut down on the food festival, and even investigated illegal capital. Do we know if that capital is illegal?"

The other subordinates also cried out, "That's right! Officials always say whatever they say is right! Not only have we lost our money, but we also have to clean up other people's messes! But it's fine if we can't get the money back just because we do our job, but the boss actually wants us to participate in some kind of chef competition! Even though we have the Fire God's Eye, none of us can cook!"

The boss was also in a state of sadness at this time: "Although we have the solution of [psychedelic seasoning], but now we have someone else trying to interfere. Number Two, do you think our luck is really bad?"

The second-in-command who was asked sighed, and everything was said without saying a word.

"No, we have to get that mushroom back! The merchants in Liyue said that they couldn't get the money even if we skinned them. How can we not get a small mushroom?" The boss became angrier and angrier. He threw his red and black cloak and said, "Let's go! Get them! They are just a few little brats. I don't believe that we [Fire Debt Handlers] can't take them all down here!"

//////

At this time, Li Tao and his group had collected all the ingredients and were on their way back to Liyue City.

As they walked, Chongyun slowly stopped and whispered to Li Tao: "Brother Li, do you feel it? It's the same breath as before."

"And it's so obviously hostile... It's very similar to the flying fish we encountered that day. Is it going to kill us halfway?" Li Tao made such a judgment, and at the same time, he touched the wound on his chest with a serious face and said, "But with this injury, I'm afraid I can't fight."

"Brother Li, don't worry, you..." Chongyun was about to say something, but he saw Xingqiu walking towards him with a serious face, which made him stunned for a moment, and the rest of the sentence "Just stay here and relax" was left on his lips.

Li Tao looked at Xingqiu and felt a headache. He suddenly realized that no matter how mature Xingqiu was, he was still a teenager five or six years younger than him. In a person's growth path, adolescence is the time when people are most likely to get stuck in a dead end. Xingqiu looked like he was still brooding over something that happened before.

Why did Li Tao know this? Of course, it was because he had been in such a dilemma before and even ran away from home. He had experienced the same mental journey of young people, so how could he not understand what they were thinking?

As expected, Xingqiu silently thrust a beautifully crafted dagger into Li Tao's hand. With a determined look in his eyes, he said to Li Tao solemnly, "Brother Li... take this and protect yourself. I, and others, will also protect you. We will never let you get hurt again... If I do anything to let you down again like I did the day before yesterday, you can kill me with this sword."

Li Tao felt that his expression was really just a bitter smile: "Why bother, Xingqiu? We all know that what happened that night was just an accident. You didn't mean to hurt me..."

But Xingqiu had already turned his head away and didn't listen to what Li Tao was saying.

“Haha.” Chongyun laughed, trying to ease the suddenly heavy atmosphere. “Well, Brother Li, Xingqiu is doing this for your own good.”

"Of course I know... I'll leave the rest to you." Li Tao took a deep breath and pretended to be calm, but his heart was not at peace. His heart was very complicated, because the moment he took over Xingqiu's dagger, he felt Xingqiu's intense emotions. Just as Xingqiu said, he didn't want Li Tao to be hurt again. This was not only out of friendship, but also out of a feeling similar to the debt owed to each other between a borrower and a creditor.

It was the first time that Li Tao had such a feeling of being protected. Ever since his parents divorced, he knew how to protect himself and how to deal with the setbacks and hardships of life with laughter, anger and scolding. But until now, he was trusted with someone's back, or even his life, and everything the other person did was just to protect him - how could Li Tao not be surprised and moved?

Xingqiu and Chongyun just looked at each other and walked forward with their swords drawn. After a brief discussion with Xiangling and Hutao, the other four people, except Li Tao, protected him behind them.

Seeing that Li Tao and his group had been alerted in advance, the Fatui Fire Debt Handlers no longer hid their tracks and quickly ran and jumped towards Li Tao and his group. They ran and shouted:

"Hand over the [Magic Mushrooms] to us!"

.......

"It's the Fatui?" Chongyun raised his sword with a strange expression, "Aren't you the envoys of Zhidong? Why did you come to Minlin to fight with us for this [Magic Mushroom] when you have nothing better to do?"

Xingqiu explained in a deep voice: "Chongyun, these people are not the messengers of the Winter Solstice. At most, they are the Fatui's thugs, and they are thugs who specialize in debt collection. They are the Debt Collectors."

Chongyun, who always maintained a cool and aloof image, now took on the role of complaining that was usually played by Li Tao, and said coldly: "Oh, so they are some young hooligans. In our Liyue, only those small hooligans are hired to do such a shameless job as debt collection."

Provoked by Chongyun's words, several Fire Debt Handlers immediately became unhappy: "Hey, kid, I advise you to keep your mouth shut. Do you know that in order to compete for the position of debt handler, we have gone through many difficult tests, which is not something that gangsters can do!"

"I don't know what you've been through, and I'm not interested in knowing." Chongyun waved his heavy sword with one hand and continued to taunt, "I only know that you guys are here with bad intentions!"

The head of the Fire Debt Handler cursed unhappily, "Shut up, little alchemist! We have been eyeing this mushroom for a long time, and it was you who sent that panda to steal it! You are the ones who came here!"

Now, even the good-tempered Xiangling couldn't help but say, "Huh? If I said that I had been eyeing the position of your Zhidong Nation's Ice God, would that mean that the Ice God was the one who came later? What nonsense!"

You are quite aggressive, Sister Xiangling. Li Tao was a little embarrassed, but if he had gone up to taunt her, a fight would probably have broken out by now.

Then, Master Hu's words ignited the already tense atmosphere between the two sides: "Since you all know it's all nonsense, let's see who's the real deal! Be careful not to be sent to the afterlife by me, you bastards!"

"Chi Tuan, give them the whole job! Anshen Mystic Technique!"

"Gah!"

I saw that Master Hu suddenly took action, picked up the fiery soul that came out of her hat, and threw it towards the debt collectors, and a large amount of flames immediately splashed out. However, this group of fire debt collectors were very familiar with the fire element, and the large-scale flames did not particularly affect them. Instead, they used the flames to perform their signature move - invisibility.

"Hey, Xiangling, Chongyun!" Hu Tao immediately called out to her companions, and Xiangling's [Spinning Fire Wheel] and Chongyun's [Spirit Blade: Clouds Open and Stars Fall] also arrived!

"Don't think we can't find you just because you hide your body! Fire wheel, dance wildly!" Xiang Ling danced with her spear with great vigor, mobilizing all the fire elements in her body to its strongest and most powerful state. Then, with an extremely skillful posture, she swung out the fire wheel on the spear, and it spun rapidly around herself.

This move forced the Fire Debt Handler to dodge - but Chongyun's [Clouds Open and Stars Fall] had already alternated the fire elemental power on the field, causing a large number of melting reactions. Moreover, the damage caused by the spirit blade could not be avoided by simply being invisible.

Chongyun was seen chanting a spell, elemental power surged, and he casually shot out three spiritual blades made of black ice, and spread the ice elemental power as much as possible. The large-scale attack made it impossible for the Fire Debt Collector to rely on invisibility to dodge, and he could only rely on the weapons in his hands and combat experience to withstand it.

Several people from the other side showed up, holding scimitars, and chopped at Xiangling's [Spinning Fire Wheel], trying to neutralize its force. Some people once again used their flying knife skills, swung out the scimitars in their hands, and like Xiangling, made the scimitars wrap with fire elemental power and spin and dance in the air. But they had to take the large amount of ice elemental damage spread by [Clouds Opening and Stars Falling].

Just when the ice elemental force slowed down the Fatui's pace, Xingqiu drew his sword and stepped forward, moving as fast as thunder!

In an instant, he displayed the secrets of the ancient Hua swordsmanship [Cutting the Rain and Leaving the Rainbow] and [Painting the Rain Covering the Mountain] in succession!

His expression was cold, and he swung the sword in his hand, displaying the [Rainbow Sword Style] in his sword technique; the sword moved as his heart moved, and the water moved as the sword did. A large amount of water elemental power condensed into the Rain Curtain Sword to assist him in the battle; with the sword style, he controlled the rain of swords, and then cut off the rain of swords, leaving only the sword that was as graceful as a startled swan and as elegant as a swimming dragon!

But there is more than just a sword. When two people faced Xingqiu, one threw a scimitar at his face, and the other was on fire to hinder his attack, Xingqiu just swung his sword accurately, and then used the sword's momentum and the recoil of the water sword to flip his body, [Painting Rain Caged Mountain]!

The water flow, rising from the ground and falling from the sky, was a murderous and absolutely cold flow, which extinguished the flames on the enemy and cleverly cut the enemy in half. The other person's flying knife was quickly bounced away and flew to who knows where.

It is easy to slay a dragon, but difficult to draw raindrops... With this sword, Xingqiu has fully mastered the mystery of the Guhua Sword·Drawing Rain Cage Mountain.

Li Tao, who had been watching from behind, had also learned about the Ancient Hua Swordsmanship from Xingqiu. He even learned it himself, but unfortunately his comprehension was not good enough in this area, so he didn't learn anything substantial. But he still had some understanding of the various moves of the Ancient Hua Swordsmanship.

It seems that the battle will be over soon without Li Tao...