Late at night.
Mu Yang, who was meditating, was woken up. When he opened his eyes, it was the pixel dragon Ajaw.
Mu Yang had actually already sensed it, but he still pretended to be casual and asked.
Had Kinich arranged some Scions of the Canopy tour activity?
After all, it was still early, and the sky hadn't even brightened yet.
Although the sky hadn't brightened, it didn't stop Ajaw from wearing its little sunglasses.
"Stop pretending. I'm here to talk business with you!"
"Business?"
Ajaw hugged its short arms and nodded extremely arrogantly. "That's right."
"You've hidden yourself very well, but you can't fool the wise and great Kuhul Ajaw!"
"Your strength shouldn't be as simple as it appears on the surface, right?"
Mu Yang had to admit that Ajaw did have some ability.
That made sense. After all, this was one of the most primordial races in Teyvat — a dragon.
Just the fact that it could manifest its form through phlogiston and assist Kinich in battle proved its extraordinariness.
So it wasn't surprising that it could see Mu Yang was somewhat different from ordinary people.
Moreover, Mu Yang simply didn't want others to pry into his true strength like viewing O.
That was why he had blocked it.
He wasn't playing the "pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger" routine.
In fact, whenever force was needed to hold the scene, Mu Yang never hesitated.
One only needed to look at his precious disciple Shenhe to know this.
As long as your fist was big enough, the other side would quietly listen to you reason.
Mu Yang told Ajaw to speak directly if it had something to say.
Ajaw didn't hide anything either and spoke openly.
"Help me kill Kinich."
"You heard the story earlier, right? As long as this guy dies, the wise Kuhul Ajaw will be free!"
Mu Yang stroked his chin, pretending to think.
"What can you give me?"
Seeing that Mu Yang didn't immediately refuse, Ajaw's eyes seemed to light up!
This was Mu Yang's guess, because this guy was wearing sunglasses.
"Treasure! Power! Wisdom! Or do you have any other needs? The great sacred dragon will definitely not treat you poorly!"
Mu Yang stood up and thrust out a sword with Withering Glory at a speed Ajaw couldn't comprehend…
If this sword had deviated even a fraction more, Ajaw might have dissipated.
"Do you know what my identity was before I became a traveling merchant?"
Ajaw was clearly frightened, but still pretended to be calm. "What identity?"
"Demon hunter. It's similar to your current life — as long as there's Mora, I'll consider it."
"Mora… ahahaha—" The laughing Ajaw subconsciously covered its mouth, afraid of waking Kinich.
"Mora is the easiest to solve. All the money on this guy, I can give it all to you! As long as…"
Ajaw used its little short hands to gesture the sword Mu Yang had thrust out.
Mu Yang did not act immediately. Instead, he sheathed his sword.
"Before I make a move, I usually collect information on the prey first. Of course, with you here, this step can be skipped."
Ajaw snorted. "This point is actually quite similar to my stupid servant…"
Compared to many human characters in Genshin Impact.
Kinich's childhood experience couldn't be considered rich and noble.
It could only be described as greatly negative and greatly kneeling…
His father was a messenger who worked one day and rested three, with the hobby of using one day's wages at the gambling table to win big with small stakes.
If he won, it was fine. Little Kinich would get a box of expensive candy, and Kinich's mother would receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
But if the result that day was a loss, the mother and son only had one outcome — kneeling.
After all, a woman holding a child was obviously no match for a strong man in a household war of flipping pots and smashing bowls.
Fortunately, Kinich's mother was strong enough and had a relatively clear mind.
She wasn't good at fighting, but she was excellent at farming. After all, there were three mouths in the family that needed to eat.
Such days did not last long.
After all, nine out of ten bets lose. One day, Kinich's father lost the house in a gamble.
The family had no choice but to move to the foot of a mountain far from the tribe.
There was one advantage to moving to the foot of the mountain.
There was a larger area of land here. Kinich quickly learned from his mother how to plant granular fruit, weave ropes from castor, and stir cassava flour to make coarse noodles…
He even taught himself how to make traps to hunt forest pigs.
Compared to these benefits, the downsides seemed more obvious…
At the foot of the mountain, the violence in the home no longer had neighbors or the clan chief to mediate.
The extent of injury to Kinich and his mother depended entirely on how drunk his father was.
Finally, late one night, the overburdened mother quietly left.
She did not take her young son with her, perhaps fearing that her husband would chase her to the ends of the earth because of it.
Kinich didn't remember if his mother had said goodbye to him, but he still inherited his mother's household duties very well — farming, hunting…
And even taking beatings…
However, as he grew older, Kinich gradually learned to run away.
His athletic talent was outstanding. Every day he ran faster than the previous day. His chronically alcoholic father could no longer easily catch him.
Every time he dashed out the door, the sound of the wind would briefly drown out his father's curses behind him. Those were the rare moments when he felt free.
When Kinich was seven years old, fate seemed to want to give him a gift —
A true freedom.
On his seventh birthday, Kinich asked his father for the first time if there was any news about his mother.
The answer was obvious.
At that time, his father had a headache from a hangover, and his eyes were bloodshot.
But even so, he angrily grabbed a wine bottle, chased Kinich out of the house, and wanted to beat him severely.
Due to long-term alcoholism, his father's body was much worse than before.
While chasing his son, he accidentally slipped at a cliff and fell off.
By the time Kinich reacted, the man he had lived with for many years was already lying motionless among the gravel in the mountain col, like a forest pig that had grown tired of fighting the trap and decided not to get up again…
Ajaw seemed to have read Kinich's memories from that time.
Anyway, its performance was very realistic.
In that time segment, Kinich first felt a huge sense of confusion. His brain went blank, followed by an inexplicable sourness that slammed into his body.
He narrowed his eyes, wrinkled his nose, inhaled hard, and twisted his face into a ball before he managed to stop the tears from flowing out.
After an unknown amount of time, Kinich picked up his father's grappling hook equipment, laboriously dragged his father's stiffened body, and walked toward home.
The irresponsible man had never taught him how to use the grappling hook.
He had secretly learned it after watching a few times.
He flew past one tree branch after another, with the strong wind whistling past his ears.
That was the boy's seventh birthday. The mountains sent him the gift of freedom.
When he opened the gift box, inside lay only loneliness.
The above was Kinich's background story.
Mu Yang finally understood why Kinich had calmness and judgment beyond his age.
It seemed that childhood influence accounted for a large proportion.
Another thing Mu Yang found interesting was that Genshin Impact rarely depicted such "real" family situations.
He wondered if it would be written into the character story.
From what he remembered, many characters either had both parents dead or both parents busy.
Rarely was personal story space devoted to it.
Unless the family was related to the Vision or the character's profession, like Diona's father.
Ajaw stopped narrating, seemingly waiting for Mu Yang to make a move.
But Mu Yang only said faintly, "You actually don't want him to die, right?"