A violent tremor ran through Kairo's body.
It started from deep within his chest—
a thump, like a war drum, echoing through his ribs.
Immediately afterward, his blood surged as if it were molten lightning, racing through his veins with a force that made every nerve hum. A tide of power rose to a peak, almost overwhelming.
Kairo's eyes snapped open.
For a brief instant, a faint, draconic gleam flashed across his pupils—an ancient, noble pressure that didn't belong to any human bloodline.
This is… Vidyadhara blood?
Even though it was only a thin thread awakening, it was enough to overturn his entire being.
He could feel it clearly:
his bones, his muscles, even his nerve pathways were being washed and tempered by this new power. It was like a blade that had already been forged a thousand times over… now being infused with divinity, completing its rebirth.
He slowly curled his fingers into a fist.
The moment his hand clenched, the air itself seemed to warp faintly around his knuckles under an invisible pressure.
Kairo took a steady breath.
"So this is the blood of the Vidyadhara… The effect is this strong?"
He could tell—very clearly—that he'd stepped out of his previous "tier" entirely.
His body felt lighter, quicker… yet somehow even more solid.
Just a moment ago, when Jing Yuan's "thunderous will" had fused into his path powers, Kairo's energy had surged violently, his meridians nearly pushed to their limits by the new lightning attribute. But now, with the Vidyadhara bloodline awakening, that power was no longer running wild.
Instead, it was being reforged.
Lightning wove itself into the newly awakened dragon blood, flowing through his body in smooth, controlled currents. The previous burning ache faded, replaced by a sense of deep, terrifying potential.
"If I activate my path powers now…"
He imagined himself using Ripple, using Butterfly Step, using all his movement skills—
this time with lightning crackling along his strikes, and Vidyadhara resilience reinforcing his body.
Whether it was stamina, reflexes, or pure physical strength, everything had been raised to another level.
And that was from just a single extraction of Vidyadhara blood.
Kairo slowly exhaled, letting the power settle.
Bit by bit, the surging energy calmed down, like a stormy sea gradually returning to a mirror-smooth surface. The faint dragon aura receded back into the depths of his body, leaving only a subtle, lingering sense of pressure.
"Hu…"
He relaxed his shoulders and finally drew his attention back to reality.
Back to Liyue.
Back to the quiet inn room.
Back to the present moment—
where he was currently sitting on the edge of the bed, still a little sweaty from the earlier wave of energy, with a soft towel pressing gently against his back.
"Um… does it still hurt anywhere?"
Barbara's worried voice came from behind him.
She stood at his side, sleeves rolled up, carefully wiping off the sweat on his back with a damp cloth. Her expression was focused and serious, completely in "healer mode."
Kairo looked down at the shirt he'd tossed aside earlier so it wouldn't get soaked, then smiled a little helplessly.
"It's fine. I'm not actually injured, just… a bit sore from the sudden surge."
"Even so, you can't just brush it off."
Barbara puffed her cheeks, lips pursing slightly in a familiar, gentle pout.
"Your heartbeat was going so fast just now. If I hadn't checked with Vision healing, I would've thought you had a fever…"
She said that, but her cheeks were faintly pink; after all, from her perspective, she had spent the past while tending to a very close, very shirtless "patient."
On the other side of the bed, Fischl lay sprawled on her stomach, chin propped on her hands, her purple eyes half-lidded, watching them with a complicated look.
"啧...汝之身躯,似乎愈发强韧了."
She snorted softly, then translated her own muttering into something大家能听懂的:
"Ahem. It seems your body has grown even sturdier, Kairo. Last night you were already… ahem, quite tireless. I did not expect that you would still have enough energy this morning to push yourself again."
Kairo's jaw twitched.
"Don't phrase it so misleadingly."
He had only pushed his powers to test the new lightning attribute. Only that.
But Fischl, clearly very satisfied with her own choice of words, snorted lightly and looked away—yet the tips of her ears had turned very red.
Barbara, who had originally been calmly wiping his back, also froze for half a second.
"L-Last night…"
Her face immediately flushed bright red, and her hands began to move a little more hurriedly than before.
Kairo didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Last night, the three of them had just—shared a bed and talked until very late. A lot of things had been said frankly, hearts had been laid bare, and then everyone had simply fallen asleep in a heap.
But in the morning light, with memories blurring and Fischl's wording sounding incredibly suggestive, even he couldn't help feeling like there was something… not entirely innocent about it all.
He lightly cleared his throat.
"All right, that's enough; I can handle the rest myself."
Barbara blinked, reacted, and hurriedly handed him the cloth, stepping back a bit.
"O-Okay!"
Her voice was soft as a mosquito's buzz, her face still pink.
Kairo finished wiping himself down, threw on clean clothes, and finally felt like a normal person again. The dragon blood had settled, his lightning attribute stabilized, and his body felt better than ever.
He glanced at his hands.
"Lightning attribute, Vidyadhara bloodline… if I combine this with Butterfly Step, it's going to be very interesting."
He could feel it faintly:
If his earlier movements were just "fast", then now—
Under Butterfly Step, with his newly gained lightning property and strengthened body, he would be able to draw streaks of afterimages across a large area, leaving opponents completely unable to tell which was his real position.
Thinking this, Kairo couldn't help but smile.
At that moment, Barbara let out a tiny yawn.
She rubbed her eyes, lashes trembling slightly, clearly still not fully awake. Her cheeks carried the soft pink of someone who'd slept late and woken in a daze.
On the other side, Fischl frowned, turned over, and muttered, "This princess still needs more repose… Last night I communed with the abyssal night and drew wisdom from the shadows…"
Kairo reached out and flicked her gently on the forehead.
"Get up. We're going out. Today is the Rite of Descension."
"Uwah—!"
Fischl clutched her forehead, glaring at him with teary golden eyes, looking as if she'd been grievously wronged. Still, she sat up, rubbing her hair, clearly far from fully awake.
After a quick wash and change of clothes, Kairo, Barbara, and Fischl finally left the room.
Ying and Paimon were already waiting in the corridor.
The moment Paimon saw Barbara and Fischl come down—both with heavy, sleepy dark circles under their eyes and yawning as they walked—her antennae immediately went up.
"Hey, hey, hey, what did you two do last night?" Paimon floated closer, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why do you both look so exhausted?"
"Uh…"
Barbara's face instantly went crimson.
She lowered her head, lips pressed tight, looking like she wanted to explain but didn't dare.
Fischl also turned her head away, coughed lightly, and waved her hand with forced composure.
"Ahem… This is not something that mere mortals need know. The princess's nocturnal audience with fate is no trivial matter…"
Paimon's eyes narrowed further.
She slowly turned her gaze to Kairo.
"And you? Why did you sleep so late too? And why did all three of you come out of the same room?"
Kairo: "…"
Facing Paimon's suspicious stare, he suddenly felt that gaining dragon blood and lightning might be less dangerous than dealing with this floating mascot's imagination.
"Don't overthink it," he replied helplessly. "We just talked too late and ended up crashing in the same room. That's all."
Paimon didn't look convinced.
Her eyes flicked between Barbara's crimson face, Fischl's evasive expression, and Kairo's very calm but slightly stiff smile.
"Really~?" Her tone was long and drawn-out. "You promise you're not hiding something from us?"
Ying coughed lightly, tugging at Paimon's cape.
"Okay, okay… it's almost time for the Rite of Descension. If we miss the crowd's first wave, it'll be hard to find a good spot."
Paimon pouted, but finally gave up the interrogation—for now.
"Hmph. I'll let you off this time. But if anything weird shows up later, I'll remember this conversation!"
Seeing her finally redirect her focus, Kairo secretly sighed in relief.
He really didn't want to be cross-examined about "what happened last night" at this hour of the morning.
"Let's go," he said. "Please don't forget that there will be a dragon corpse falling from the sky later. That's the main event."
"Hey—don't jinx it like that!"
Paimon shrieked. "You make it sound way too ominous!"
Fischl, however, let out a quiet chuckle.
"Heh… A dragon corpse falling from the heavens… This is indeed worthy of being called a turning point of fate."
Barbara, who had finally calmed down a little, looked at Kairo thoughtfully.
Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she only whispered in her heart:
No matter where his journey goes from here…
I just hope he'll remember this time in Liyue.
The four of them stepped out of the inn and walked toward the bustling streets of Liyue Harbor.
Today was the day of the Rite of Descension.
And Liyue was about to welcome a storm.
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