Once Hanachirusato had slipped back into the soul box, Su Han and the others returned to the summit of Mt. Yougou.
He took out the Dragon Vein and gently set it against the Sacred Sakura.
The relic shone with a clear, holy light as it drifted upward, then settled slowly atop the highest branches.
The moment it touched the crown, something strange happened.
A breeze stirred.
Countless petals lifted into the air.
Lines of light traced themselves along the trunk, racing through the bark until the whole tree seemed to wake and tremble.
The already towering Sacred Sakura began to grow again, branches thickening, leaves bursting into even richer bloom. A new, undeniable sanctity wrapped around it.
Light poured from the tree in slow waves.
Anyone standing nearby felt their chest loosen, as if some heavy weight had been quietly taken away.
Yae Miko stared, genuinely surprised. "Why does this tree feel… emotional?" she murmured.
"It's probably a will," Mona said after a moment's thought. "Anything that lives long enough can give birth to one.
"Like Azhdaha in Liyue. He was only a spirit stone at the beginning."
Shenhe caught a falling petal and shook her head. "Ordinary beings can't maintain a purification like this," she said. "Not for an entire island.
"Miko, you told me once—the Sacred Sakura's roots spread through all of Narukami, didn't you?
"To influence a land that vast… the power here must be at least on par with an Archon."
Kazuha's eyes widened. "You mean there's an Archon hidden here?" he asked. "What if it wakes and turns on us?"
"Idiot," Mona said, exasperated. "The Sacred Sakura has been purifying Narukami for five hundred years.
"Why would it hurt the people now?"
She understood what he feared: that something this powerful could be twisted someday. But beside her, Yae went suddenly still.
Kazuha's words hit her like a bolt.
She turned sharply and looked up at the glowing tree.
At last, she understood the hint Su Han had given her once—that "that person" wasn't entirely gone.
"Su… Su Han," she said, voice tightening. "Are you saying that… that she—Makoto—is the Sacred Sakura?"
For once, the fox priestess's composure cracked. Her words came out in broken fragments.
She had spent five hundred years at Narukami Shrine, living in the shadow of this tree.
She had never realized that the Sacred Sakura was her dear friend's other form.
Raiden Makoto.
The former Electro Archon's soul had been in the tree all along.
Seeing that she had finally reached the truth on her own, Su Han stepped up to the trunk.
"Yes," he said. "You're not wrong.
"Her situation was worse than Hanachirusato's. Only the faintest obsession remained.
"I didn't dare tell you before.
"If even that last fragment had collapsed, things would have been… very bad.
"So I held my tongue.
"I honestly didn't expect the Dragon Vein to work this well on the tree."
The relic that had alighted on the canopy had now vanished entirely, merged into wood and sap. In return, the Sacred Sakura had been reborn.
Yae came closer, one hand tightening on her staff. "And now?" she asked. "What about her?"
"Don't worry," Su Han said. "With the Dragon Vein guarding her, she won't fade.
"At least not anytime soon.
"From here, it's our turn to work.
"Saving an Archon is never simple."
With only the thread of an obsession holding her together, Raiden Makoto had turned what remained of herself into the Sacred Sakura, guarding Narukami and quietly watching over her little sister.
Now, tree and Archon were one.
To free her, that fragment of soul would have to be repaired.
And mending an Archon's soul was nothing like patching a human's.
The locust‑wood box was already at its limit with Hanachirusato. It could do nothing for a being on Makoto's level.
They would need a greater force—something on the level of the famed artifacts from other worlds.
The Nuwa Stone, which could bring the dead to life.
Or the Shennong Cauldron, to brew a perfect medicine.
There were pills in some realms, too, that could call a soul back from the brink. In the world of flames and Dou Qi, even an old master who was nothing but a remnant soul had eventually returned in full.
Yae let out a long breath and stroked the bark.
"So long as her soul endures, that's enough," she said quietly. "There will be a way.
"I've troubled you again.
"You've saved two of the most precious people in my life now."
She looked up at the Sacred Sakura's gleaming crown and couldn't help imagining Ei's face when she learned that her sister still lived.
It would be quite a sight.
…
High above Inazuma City, inside the Plane of Euthymia, Ei sat in meditation.
Suddenly, a familiar aura brushed past her.
Her eyes flew open.
In the next instant, her body appeared atop Tenshukaku, the wind snatching at her sleeves.
She searched the air around her.
She felt nothing.
But a moment ago, she would have sworn—
"It was her," Ei whispered. "That warmth… I can't be mistaken."
She had not felt her sister's presence since that night, five hundred years ago, when Makoto had died in her arms.
That memory was seared into her. There was no room for error.
But then… what had she just sensed?
Her gaze turned toward Narukami Shrine.
Her brows furrowed.
For a moment, she wanted to go there, to ask.
She pictured the fox's smirk, the inevitable teasing, and let the impulse fade.
She stayed on the rooftop for a full hour.
The aura did not return.
In the end, she told herself it had been an illusion, a product of her own buried wishes.
She stepped back into the Plane of Euthymia, never realizing she had just missed a chance to stand beneath the same sky as her sister again.
…
At dawn the next day, inside Tenshukaku, Kujou Sara knelt in front of the Raiden Shogun.
"I have failed you, my Shogun," she said quietly. "The head of the Tenryou Commission, my foster father Kujou Takayuki, has escaped.
"His whereabouts are unknown."
She had searched Inazuma City through the night.
There was no trace.
Most likely, he had already slipped off Narukami Island.
To Sara, that was a grave failure.
"It is not your fault," the Shogun said. "Kujou Takayuki must have prepared for this long ago.
"Perhaps the battle the other day forced his hand.
"Issue a warrant.
"And publicize what happened during the day. It will prevent panic."
She had already traded a stroke of her blade with Su Han.
Now she had to offer Liyue something in return.
This incident's true mastermind—Kujou Takayuki—would have to answer for it with his life.
To launch an attack on another nation without leave was to betray her as well.
"Yes, my Shogun."
Sara bowed and withdrew.
Half an hour later, the events of the previous days were posted across Inazuma City.
People finally learned what had really happened on Ritou.
The city buzzed.
"So that's how it was…"
"The two Commission heads attacked another nation and were caught red‑handed? Have they lost their minds?"
"Do they have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"Have those two families gone mad? To strike at Liyue… If their army comes for us, what then?"
Murmurs rippled through the streets.
Domestic war, most of them could stomach.
The god of Watatsumi, Orobashi, had already fallen to the Raiden Shogun's blade on Yashiori Island. With their own Archon on their side, they did not fear the people of Watatsumi.
Liyue was different.
The tales that had reached them painted a very different picture: a land that had produced a man capable of suppressing demon gods, a place where adepti and immortals walked the mountains, under the gaze of the oldest living Archon, Morax.
If it came to open war, Inazuma's position would be precarious at best.
Watching the worry spread from face to face, Kujou Sara could only sigh inwardly.
She had never imagined that her foster father would betray Inazuma itself.
But her loyalty to the Shogun did not waver.
If the enemy was her own kin, so be it.
Whoever stood against Ei's will, she would raise her bow.
…
Far from Narukami, on a small island off the coast, the head of the Tenryou Commission was hiding.
Kujou Takayuki's face was an ugly shade of gray.
This time, he had failed completely.
"Damn it," he snarled. "How did it end up like this?
"Everything was perfect. Why?"
He worshiped the Raiden Shogun.
He believed in the sword of Musou no Hitotachi.
That was why he had joined hands with the Fatui, using their strength to elevate the Kujou clan.
Even in attacking Liyue's convoys, he had believed he could keep matters contained. As long as the Shogun stood above them, all were but ants beneath her lightning.
So what if the man from Liyue could stand against a vortex demon god?
Before the Raiden Shogun, he would still be forced to flee.
The fall of the Kanjou head had shattered that certainty.
Alarmed, Kujou Takayuki had fled the city in haste, taking only a few hundred of the clan's most loyal retainers.
The state of it all was humiliating.
"Still," he muttered, forcing himself calm, "we're not without options.
"We move."
"Where to, my lord?" one of the men asked.
"The Kujou Encampment," he said. "That's our stronghold.
"If Sara comes after us, I'll offer my apologies… but I won't simply lie down and die.
"If they want an admission of guilt, they can have it.
"I'll even return the ore.
"But I will not pay with my life."