He raised his gun, fired, slid, and holstered it, all in one smooth motion.
Bing Tang's livestream instantly went wild.
How could you not like a man who could handle a gun and do a slide?
【MiHoYo, please make this move into a skill!】
【He's so stylishly cool, when this character comes out, I'm gonna spend all my wishes on him!】
【I am the Ambassador's...】
The streamer, Bing Tang, covered her face and kept staring at the screen at Si Xuan.
“This man is too handsome, MiHoYo, when is he going to be released? ”
On the screen, Nahida, controlling Katherine's body, checked on the fallen mercenaries.
She let out a slow breath.
“Good, they're still alive. ”
As an Ambassador, he naturally wouldn't kill all her people in front of a god.
Gods love mankind.
This was almost a "thought imprint" embedded in the very essence of the Archons.
Even though Nahida had experienced five hundred years of unfair treatment, she wouldn't want her people to die.
So on the way here, Si Xuan had already switched the bullets in his gun to tranquilizer darts.
“These people won't wake up for three days, you have plenty of time to go to the desert.”
Paimon rubbed her head.
After the previous conflict, her lost brain seemed to be back.
“You? You're not coming with us?”
If this was in the game, it would take a few minutes to run to the desert.
But in reality, it would take at least five days to get from the Garden of Tranquility to the Aaru Village.
That's without stopping to rest and go at a steady pace.
So Si Xuan wasn't planning on going with them.
“I still have some things to do in Sumeru, I’ll catch up with you later. Besides, helping you was a favor for the god, if you want me to help you again, you'll have to pay. I'm not the kind of person who works for free.”
At the mention of money, Paimon immediately dropped the idea of inviting Si Xuan.
“Now that I think about it, Diluc did say that the Fontaine Ambassador is a man who values Mora quite a bit.”
Si Xuan wasn’t ashamed, but instead nodded solemnly.
“That guy's assessment of me is pretty accurate.”
Paimon shrugged at Lumine, who also shook her head slightly.
She was always the one completing commissions and getting paid by others.
No one else was going to get a single Mora from her.
“Are you leaving now?”
Nahida looked at Si Xuan, through Katherine's grey-blue eyes, Si Xuan seemed to see the inquisitive gaze of Nahida's true form in the Palace of Alcazarzaray.
Si Xuan glanced at the sky and shook his head slightly.
“I'm already here, of course I'm going to meet the owner of this place. I have a pretty good relationship with Tighnari.”
Speak of the devil, just as Si Xuan mentioned Tighnari, he walked up to them.
His large ears twitched slightly, his fluffy tail wagged gently, giving people the urge to hug his dog head and rub it hard.
Si Xuan had lamented more than once why Tighnari wasn’t designed as a woman.
He would have been rubbing those ears every day.
“Traveler? Mr. Si Xuan? How come you're together?”
As soon as Tighnari finished speaking, he began thinking to himself, his chin in his hand.
In his opinion, this team composition was simply too strange.
As the Traveler's designated mouthpiece, Paimon quickly recounted the events of the past.
“The Akademiya's pursuit, the Fatui's Doctor.”
Even the usually calm Celestial Principle, after hearing Paimon’s explanation, felt a bit dizzy, and it took him a long time to straighten out what was happening.
“I understand, the Traveler and Paimon, and Miss Katherine are being pursued by the Akademiya, as for you, Mr. Si Xuan, with your status in Sumeru, something like this shouldn’t happen to you, right.”
Whenever Si Xuan arrived in Sumeru, he would be greeted warmly by the entire Akademiya.
After all, he was their benefactor. Ever since four hundred years ago, Si Xuan has been pouring large sums of money into Sumeru for academic research.
Although Tighnari had heard from his teacher that Si Xuan’s financial support to the Akademiya had been declining in recent years, with Si Xuan’s influence in Sumeru, he certainly wouldn’t be in a situation of being hunted.
Si Xuan shrugged and said nonchalantly, “Who knows, I almost completely cut off my funding to the Akademiya this year. Maybe Azhdaha is angry and is going to tie me up and demand ransom from Fontaine. It’s not impossible, after all, with my worth, being alone and unprotected, it’s hard for people to resist taking advantage of me.”
Tighnari, Lumine, and Paimon all instinctively covered their faces.
“I remember Diluc also said that Si Xuan is a very narcissistic person.”
Paimon’s comment immediately caused Si Xuan to become dissatisfied.
“How can that be called narcissism? That’s called having a full understanding of myself.”
Tighnari shook his head and stopped the bickering between Si Xuan and Paimon.
He led them into the Garden of Tranquility.
In the Garden of Tranquility, Lumine and Paimon encountered the first person they met after arriving in Sumeru.
Haypasia, an ordinary scholar who likes to light incense and meditate in the wild.
She didn’t even notice Si Xuan beside Lumine, but excitedly said that she could now communicate with the gods.
Haypasia was immersed in her own world, constantly talking.
She didn't notice that the expressions of the few people opposite her were strange, and their eyes kept glancing at Nahida.
Nahida’s lips twitched slightly. In her current situation, she couldn't receive any connection from her people.
This meant that Haypasia was either hallucinating or had connected to someone related to other gods.
But Sumeru was her territory, there were no other gods besides her...
Unless...
For a moment, Nahida's face turned pale.
She vaguely knew what the Akademiya’s scholars wanted to do.
But, she needed to verify it.
Si Xuan was outside, chatting with Tighnari.
“I heard from my teacher that you cut off your funding to the Akademiya this year?”
Tighnari pondered the expression of his teacher when he complained to him a few months ago.
He asked casually.
For hundreds of years, the Fontaine government has been providing huge sums of research funding to the Akademiya.
In return, the Fontaine government could collect thirty research results from the Akademiya every year.
Even in recent years, due to the Akademiya’s declining level of academic research, Si Xuan has been cutting back on funding.
But this year, cutting off funding completely was a first in hundreds of years.
“Azhdaha and the other scholars want to do a very stupid experiment.
So stupid it could cause the current scholars to fall from grace.”
Tighnari paused slightly, a look of disbelief flashing in his eyes.
It's not uncommon for a scholar to fall from grace, but for all the scholars to fall at the same time?
This has never happened in thousands of years.
The most serious incident four hundred years ago only saw three scholars fall from grace.
“What exactly happened... ”
Tighnari was about to continue his questioning, but he heard a scream coming from the room.
He hurried back into the room, only to find that Haypasia had fainted.
Si Xuan didn’t go in, but turned and left, going to the teleport waypoint in the Garden of Tranquility.
Teleport waypoints were originally a tool for the Traveler to quickly move around Teyvat.
They actually exist in Teyvat.
It’s just that the people of Teyvat can't use them at the moment.
The only known people who can use teleport waypoints are the Traveler.
The Traveler uses the spatial network created by the Abyss Order to teleport, and it’s unclear whether they can use teleport waypoints.
But Si Xuan can also use teleport waypoints. He discovered this by chance a hundred years later.
Although he doesn’t know why, the teleport waypoints scattered throughout Teyvat have indeed been quite convenient for him.
He placed his hand on the teleport waypoint, and the waypoint flashed blue.
The next second, Si Xuan disappeared from the Garden of Tranquility and returned to Sumeru City.
The Lambad Tavern.
It was now mid-afternoon, and the people of Sumeru were busy with their own affairs.
Even this most popular tavern in Sumeru was empty.
At the table outside the tavern, there was only one customer besides a certain masked man who was looking at the sea with a teacup in his hand.
Si Xuan rubbed his temples.
The dizziness that came with every spatial teleportation was something he still couldn't fully adapt to, even after four hundred years.
He slowly walked to the opposite side of the Doctor and sat down, pulling out a chair.
The Doctor seemed to have known that Si Xuan was coming, and a teacup filled to the brim with tea was already placed on the table.
“The Traveler and the Lesser Lord Kusanali have already set off for the desert region?”
Si Xuan looked at the Doctor in slight surprise.
Nahida had not shown her power, nor had she been in close contact with Si Xuan, yet he was able to guess her identity.
He was quite perceptive.
“They should be setting off. How's your experiment going? Any progress?”
The Doctor didn’t hide this top-secret experiment from Si Xuan.
Because he knew exactly what Si Xuan was going to do.
“It's going smoothly. It's estimated to be finished in half a month. Do you think those few people can stop the experimental subject?”
The Doctor didn't need to hide anything from Si Xuan.
Because he knew everything he was doing.
“Of course, you and I both know that the Gnosis is the most inconsequential thing to a god. Only someone like Scaramouche would be foolish enough to think that having the Gnosis would make him a god.”