The Golden House.
Childe, surrounded by purple lightning, charged into the Golden House. Lumine, wrapped in cyan flowing wind, followed closely behind.
"Turn to dust!"
Seeing Childe getting closer and closer to the immortal ancestor's remains, Lumine immediately used Geo energy and stomped heavily on the ground of the Golden House.
Countless crystal-like Geo constructs rose from the ground, blocking Childe's path.
Childe was momentarily stunned. Lightning swirled around his body as he prepared to break through the Geo constructs with his spear.
However, that brief moment of hesitation allowed Lumine, who had been behind him, to appear directly in front of Childe. Geo energy condensed on the longsword in her hand as she struck Childe with a single slash, knocking him back.
Lumine stood in front of the immortal ancestor's remains, sword pointed at Childe:
"I said I would not let you get near the immortal ancestor's remains."
Childe, who had suddenly suffered a heavy blow, canceled the Delusion's possession state. His body swayed as he stood up. He once again took out the Polar Star of Winter and looked at Lumine with fighting spirit:
"It seems that if I don't deal with you, there's no way I can obtain Morax's Gnosis."
"Perfect. I didn't get to fight to my heart's content outside earlier. Let's settle the outcome we couldn't decide before right here, in front of the immortal ancestor's remains!"
As soon as Childe finished speaking, a fully charged water arrow shot toward Lumine.
Lumine showed no fear and met it with her sword.
The two once again engaged in a fierce battle.
...
In the plot, the two fought evenly matched. In the real world, however, players were facing Childe's weekly boss for the first time.
"Holy shit, this plot battle came so suddenly!"
Originally, Little Gui had already lain down, ready to enjoy the cutscene of Lumine and Childe.
In this version of Genshin Impact, under the intervention of the system and Jun Bai, every cutscene was produced at a cinematic level.
As a result, Genshin Impact players had already developed the habit of preparing snacks nearby at all times.
Whenever they sensed that a cutscene was coming, they would lie down in advance and prepare to munch on snacks.
Seeing the familiar screen darken, Little Gui naturally lay down and had already reached for the snacks beside her.
It was only when the battle background music started playing that Little Gui "sat up in shock from her dying bed," which led to the national essence comment earlier.
Fortunately, Childe opened with a charged water arrow; otherwise, Little Gui might have really gone straight into "elaborate on your dream."
Only after Little Gui frantically dodged Childe's consecutive charged water arrows did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
[Unfortunately, we almost saw Little Gui overheating.]
[It's fine. Just trust Little Gui's gaming skills that can even miss against Dvalin by accident.]
[I went to Silver Wolf's livestream to scout for information. Even a skilled streamer like Wolf Cub nearly wiped. Little Gui is definitely going to overheat later.]
[Childe's damage as an enemy is really ridiculous. The one on my account can only tickle, but when he's the opponent he almost broke my Zhongli's shield.]
Seeing the comment section saying Childe's damage was ridiculous, Little Gui's eyes shifted. She then stopped controlling her character.
The next moment, the livestream viewers watched as one of Childe's water arrows completely emptied Little Gui's Venti's health bar.
"Oh! This damage is really high!"
Little Gui opened her mouth in shock.
A row of question marks appeared in the livestream.
[Fatui Harbinger solo-kills Anemo Archon.jpg]
[? Did I enter the wrong livestream? This really looks like Little Gui, not Stelle.]
[Has Stelle's carefree and abstract style started spreading to others?]
[Yeah, it's fine. Stelle's side is even more abstract than here. After Klee got one-shot by Childe, she switched to Jean and tried to use the door-slam technique on him.]
Little Gui used a Teyvat Fried Egg on Venti and then began employing hit-and-run tactics.
If she hadn't known Childe's damage in advance, Little Gui might have really entered an overheating state after her characters kept dying, just like the livestream viewers said.
But now that she had learned from some "kind-hearted" viewers that even Silver Wolf had nearly wiped, her mentality instantly relaxed.
Silver Wolf was one of the high-level Genshin Impact streamers. When she wasn't doing story in her streams, she was usually proxy-clearing the Spiral Abyss.
Even she had nearly wiped, so if Little Gui played normally, it was only a matter of time before she wiped too.
Therefore, Little Gui directly started her hit-and-run cowardly gameplay——
She stood in the corner using Venti to charge arrows. When facing wide-range or long-range attacks, she would close in with Diluc for one slash, then immediately retreat.
If she accidentally got hit by Childe, she would not hesitate at all and would immediately switch to Barbara to heal.
In this way, under Little Gui's cautious (cowardly) operation, Childe's two phases had their health bars emptied after twenty minutes.
Cutscene, activate!
...
Swords and spears clashed. Sand, stones, and lightning continuously collided inside the Golden House. Lumine and Childe no longer probed each other as they had at the beginning and brought out their real abilities.
Childe thrust forward with his spear, transforming into lightning to charge.
Lumine sidestepped to avoid it, then turned around and saw Childe aiming the Polar Star of Winter at her and charging.
Three fully charged water arrows fired simultaneously with astonishing speed.
Lumine remained calm in the face of danger. She raised her hand and released a desolate star to block Childe's attack.
The desolate star shattered. Using the smoke it produced, Lumine rushed in front of Childe.
Seeing that Childe had no time to react, a glint flashed in Lumine's eyes.
Now!
Geo energy surged from her feet to increase thrust. Vortex airflow condensed in her hand as she unleashed a fully charged Wind Vortex Sword at Childe's wide-open chest.
The pulling force controlled Childe's body while the cutting force continuously dealt damage to him.
The Wind Vortex Sword exploded, separating Lumine and Childe's bodies.
Her boots scraped across the ground for some distance. Lumine looked up, the longsword in her hand showing no sign of loosening.
Even though she could clearly feel that Childe had been heavily injured by that strike, Lumine still did not dare to relax at all.
However, at this moment, loud laughter came from within the dust cloud.
"Hahaha, I finally found an opportunity!"
Childe in his Delusion form slowly rose into the air under the enhancement of Electro. Only then did Lumine and Paimon realize that the explosion from the Wind Vortex Sword had directly sent Childe near the immortal ancestor's remains.
"I look forward to fighting strong opponents, but compared to that, Her Majesty the Tsaritsa's orders have higher priority for me."
Childe arrived directly in front of the immortal ancestor's remains.
From the wounds all over his body, it was clear that his current condition was not as good as Lumine's.
Yet Childe continued to laugh wildly, because the Gnosis that the Fatui had planned for so long was now within reach.
"Not good, Lumine! The Gnosis is about to be taken!" Paimon looked very anxious.
"His first prerequisite for completing the Cryo Archon's order is to obtain the Gnosis. Taking it away comes second."
Lumine glared at Childe.
"Heh."
Childe chuckled lightly, not caring about Lumine's words. He reached out toward the immortal ancestor's remains: "Morax's Gnosis, I'll take——"
Before he could finish, Childe's hand pulled away from the immortal ancestor's remains, but there was nothing in his hand.
[I've always wanted to see this scene!]
[Zhongli: Surprised? Not only am I still alive, the Gnosis is also in my hands!]
[Yunshang: I only said the immortal ancestor's remains are in the Golden House. I never said the Gnosis was there too. There's no reward for that.]
The scene before them was also beyond Lumine and Paimon's expectations, but recalling the various clues they had found earlier, the two quickly accepted this reality.
"Oh? I almost forgot that Rex Lapis is very likely faking his death." Lumine placed one hand on her waist and smiled at Childe. "But now it seems this is no longer just a possibility."
"Since Rex Lapis is still alive, the Gnosis is naturally not inside this fake immortal ancestor's remains."
"Your Fatui plan ends here."
Faced with this situation, Childe couldn't help but clench his fists. After planning for so long and even paying a heavy price, the result was this!
The string of reason in Childe's mind snapped.
"As expected of the deputy of Ziwei Star, as expected of the Sky Phoenix Marshal, as expected of… Rex Lapis!"
Hydro and Electro suddenly erupted on Childe's body. He began to use his final trump card——
Extreme Evil Law · Delusion of the Demon King!