Genshin Impact: A Mortal's Ascension to Godhood

Outside Teyvat is Home (Part 2)

"Adventurer Li Tao... I've heard of you." Old Sun, the administrator of the General Affairs Department, compared the documents that Xiaoyu had stamped and chatted with Li Tao. "It is said that these stone statues, like you, came from outside Teyvat. This is really magical. But since the immortal said so, it is likely to be true."

Old Sun waved his hand at Li Tao, signaling him to pass: "Go and take a look. Tell us directly if you find anything. If it's hard to explain, just write it in the report later."

Li Tao said thank you, and then walked along the path for a while, and soon saw a huge stone statue located between the cliffs - the stone statue was about five to ten meters high. Although it was not as big as the Seven Gods, it was as high as a three-story building for ordinary people. Li Tao actually recognized the figure carved on the stone statue - there was a halo behind the head, a pagoda-like bun on the head, eyes closed, kind eyes, square nose and wide mouth, big and drooping ears, and one hand was placed upright on the chest, as if bowing.

Isn’t this a [Buddha statue]?

Among the stone statues present, in addition to these most classic Buddha statues, there are also some Buddha statues with less prominent images - such as the Arhat who subdues dragons and tigers with a sword in hand, and the skinny statue that looks like Sakyamuni during his period of asceticism... In short, they are all characters in Buddhist stories.

How did these stone statues come to this continent of Teyvat? Are they really from the same world as me? With such questions in mind, Li Tao continued to observe the details of the stone statues. He found that these stone statues must have been quite old, and their luster was very dull. But they had a spirituality inside, which made people dare not disrespect them.

"This should be what the Liyue Immortal said, that there is a power inside the stone statue that is different from the elemental force?" Li Tao walked around the stone statue several times, trying to use his mind to contact the energy in the statue.

It doesn't matter if you don't touch it. As soon as Li Tao's consciousness penetrated into the stone statue, he was forced to insert several memory fragments that did not belong to him.

The destruction of the Blue Star civilization, human history and culture were compressed into symbols by the two-dimensional foil.

The two-dimensional world comes into contact and merges with the three-dimensional world, and all animation, games, and novels created by humans are integrated with the real world.

The vast majority of people have lost their memory of human history and civilization, and live as reborn people in a different world.

Some relics of human civilization are scattered among the worlds.

This time, Li Tao saw the whole process of the two-dimensional foil compressing and destroying the blue planet almost from a God's perspective. After learning the truth about his time travel, he couldn't help but sigh: It turned out that it was not his luck that he traveled to the world of the original god, but that the world of the original god itself had already merged with reality. As one side of the world, it accepted some things from the world of the blue planet, making this world that was like an adult fairy tale more real and concrete, and there might even be fellow villagers from the blue planet here. But they probably forgot all their previous memories when they were compressed into paper people by the two-dimensional foil, and thus became ordinary people on the continent of Teyvat.

"Then I can be considered lucky. I retained my memory and awakened the Eye of God. My life has already crushed 80% of the people in Teyvat." Li Tao muttered.

Now Li Tao can finally confirm what the energy in these Buddha statues is - it is the legacy of the Blue Star civilization, a spiritual power that can awaken the memories of the Blue Star natives. This power is useless to the natives of Teyvat, and it only makes people feel awe for these stone statues. But for Li Tao, he doesn't really need this power, because he has already preserved very important memories when he traveled through time.

After watching the video of the Blue Planet being crushed into pieces again, Li Tao had no more attachment to returning to his original world. He bowed solemnly to the Buddha statue, prayed for Buddha's blessing, and left without looking back.

If any fellow villagers can come here in the future and use the power of these stone statues to remember their own life experiences and the history of the human beings on Blue Star, it will be his blessing. But now, Li Tao still has his own way to go.

……

"I do recognize those stone statues. There are similar things in my hometown."

"The figures carved on those stone statues are similar to demon gods. However, the legends about them are too old, and those things can only exist as part of the ruins. As for the mysterious power inside the stone statues, it is just some kind of spiritual power. It will not interfere with people's normal thinking. It simply makes people feel awe, like some kind of pressure..."

After Li Tao's dry-mouthed explanation, Old Sun finally understood the situation: "Statues of demon gods from another world? I see. No wonder even immortals are unwilling to make casual assertions. However, adventurer Li Tao, are you sure the energy inside those statues is not dangerous?"

Li Tao blinked and said, "If there really was a problem, the immortal would have dealt with it long ago, right? But now the immortal has handed the matter over to the Liyue government, which shows that these stone statues are not harmful - at least not to the immortal."

"That makes sense." Old Sun agreed. "Then, adventurer, if it were you, how would you deal with these statues?"

"I?"

"Yes, after all, you are more familiar with these stone statues, and we can't leave them here, which may offend the immortals." Old Sun said helplessly, "The General Affairs Department has to make a decision... I want to hear your opinion."

Li Tao thought for a moment and said, "In that case, let's just throw them into the ruins. These stone statues are not the orthodox beliefs of the Seven Kingdoms, so let them go where they belong, isn't that good?"

"Ruins? Okay, thank you for your advice." Old Sun shook hands with Li Tao thoughtfully, "You can go back now. We will send the reward for this commission to the Adventurer's Association in time."

Li Tao sighed - it takes three days to travel, and half a day to do things. Can the Adventurer's Association reimburse the travel expenses? Every day when I go out, I spend time and money on travel and accommodation! However, the business of Liyue Hutchison Hall only operates in Liyue City and the suburbs of Liyue City. If you go further, you have to hire a carriage. Every time at this time, Li Tao always misses the convenient transportation in the modern world...

A few days later, Li Tao finally returned to Liyue. He first submitted his mission report to the General Affairs Department, then gave two copies of the same report to the branch leader Sister Lan, and received his reward from the Adventurer's Association. Now, he can finally take a break for a while.

After completing the series of tasks of "Abnormal Slime Growth" and the designated task of "Outer Stone Statue", Li Tao also had a "huge sum of money" of several hundred thousand Mora in his pocket, which was enough to spend. So Li Tao decided to go to a play and enjoy the intangible cultural heritage of Liyue. No matter if he could understand it or not, the main purpose was to relax.

He had originally wanted to invite his colleagues from the Adventurer's Association to go with him - but everyone was busy with quests and couldn't accept his invitation, so he had to go to the Heyu Teahouse alone with a lonely mood. It's not that he didn't want to listen to the famous opera actor Mr. Yun Jinyun's play, but recently the Yunhan Society didn't come to Liyue Harbor to perform, so he had to settle for the next best thing and go to the Heyu Teahouse.

Li Tao sat down in the teahouse, ordered a bowl of [big bowl tea] made with Chenyu tea, and asked for a plate of peanuts, and sat in the audience waiting for the show to start. After a while, the tea master came over steadily with a teapot, filled Li Tao with tea, and asked the waiter to hand over the plate of peanuts. Li Tao nodded to him, handed the Mora to the waiter, and began to chew peanuts while drinking tea. You can't keep your mouth idle.

Soon, several actors came on stage to perform. Their voices were humming and their movements were graceful and leisurely. Although Li Tao did not understand much, he clapped and cheered along with the others. The clever waiter beside him saw Li Tao like this and knew that he did not come to listen to opera often, so he quickly handed Li Tao a brief introduction to today's opera.

After reading this thin introduction to opera, Li Tao realized that the actors were singing "The Parting of Immortals and Mortals" today. This play tells a love story between an immortal and a mortal, full of the classic fantasy of an immortal falling in love with a mortal and the atmosphere of the theory of life span.

“Fuck, how could this be so bloody.” Li Tao felt like his filter was shattered. He didn’t expect that Liyue would have such a bloody drama. But seeing that everyone who was listening to the drama was very engaged, he could only imitate Uchiha Obito and say, “What’s wrong with a fantasy world?”

However, the actors' singing skills were still very good. Li Tao quickly found the lyrics after looking at the introduction. The story has reached the second half. The immortal stayed in the mortal world for too long and had to return to the cave, but the mortal was reluctant to let the immortal go. At this moment, the character playing the mortal was sadly expressing his intention to keep the immortal, while the actor playing the immortal kept explaining his dilemma.

"Alas! I was raised by my master and became an immortal. I was not born and raised by the gods. If you want to keep me in the human world, where can I put my master? If I don't return to the immortal mountain, my immortal bones will be stripped away and my immortal fetus will be struck by lightning!"

The separation of the two resonated with all the audience present. Some people drank tea fiercely, and some began to wipe their tears. Even Li Tao suddenly remembered Lu Mingfei and Eri, Chu Zihang and Xia Mi in "Dragon Clan". The scene brought back memories.

The story ends with the immortal and the mortal parting forever. The immortal is gone for decades, and when he returns to the human world, the mortal has died of depression. The immortal sings a sad song, which lasts a long time. However, the story still has a suspense at the end - the immortal and the mortal finally have a child, and the fruit of their love still carries their love and continues to live in the world.

After watching this drama, Li Tao became emo - it's a bit too tear-jerking! Is the author of this script really not afraid of someone sending him razor blades? Li Tao, upset, no longer had the mood to continue eating, drinking and having fun, and started to walk aimlessly in Liyue City. At some point, it got dark.

Let's go to some open space, he thought.

Soon, he arrived at Yujing Terrace, a place where he could see the night view of Liyue. Standing here, feeling the cool breeze, some of the sluggish feelings disappeared. So he straightened his chest and looked at the stars in the sky - the Big Dipper was still bright and conspicuous, and countless other stars also dotted the vast night sky.

Is that my hometown? Li Tao suddenly had an inexplicable thought. But he already knew that his hometown was not there. The starry sky of Teyvat was only a creation of God, and they were not planets one after another. According to his understanding, his hometown Blue Star had become a strange two-dimensional world.

But for Li Tao, his hometown is indeed outside of Teyvat. The homesickness and the desire to love and be loved after watching the opera intertwined, bringing back his memories of the past - although he lacked the experience of loving and being loved in the past, he now longs to find something worthy of his love in this world of Teyvat.

I want to love my hometown. I want to love the people I should love. I want to love a strong self. I want to love a strong self. I want to love myself and others who deserve to be loved.

I want to gain recognition from myself and others, and I want to be the strongest person in Teyvat. If someone needs love, then I will love; if this love is restricted by anything, I will surpass it, break it, and then take the love back! Because this is my emotion, my will and decision——

As a strong person, I will lead the weak and challenge the strong. I will set my own order and not let anyone else's order constrain me! Because this world of Teyvat is a world where the strong are respected. When I become the strongest, what mistakes will I make? What mistakes will I make? Even the maintainer of justice will be insulted by me, strong alkali!

Because this is my way, my path. The path of strength and love.

At this moment, all of Li Tao's emotions converged and rushed straight to Douniu. A star in the sky quietly shattered, turning into starlight and merging into his body. For a moment, Li Tao felt that his body and mind were extremely smooth, as if there were no obstacles. He left Yujingtai refreshed, but did not realize that he had accidentally broken through the shackles of his spirit.