Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 149 The Herrscher of Death (doge)

After Kiana's painstaking explanation, Bella finally accepted Kiana's explanation.

However, Bella stated that she would absolutely not relinquish the position of Kiana's first familiar.

In short, nothing unexpected happened during the rest of the Lantern Festival. If there was anything unexpected, it was probably that Ishtar would occasionally come by for a visit.

Shin explained that this was bad for her heart, and also explained to the others that Ishtar didn't want people to call her by her real name, as it would cause bad things to happen.

Therefore, during this period, everyone generally called Istaru "Rutasui", except for Kiana.

Incidentally, during the Lantern Festival, besides strolling around and wandering the streets, Kiana spent the rest of her time thinking about how to repair the link between Teyvat and the Imaginary Tree.

After all, banishing the Abyss is one thing, but ultimately the Abyss is also one of the manifestations of the Quanta Sea's erosion of Teyvat.

If the link to Teyvat can be successfully repaired, the Imaginary Tree's resistance to the Sea of ​​Quanta will significantly reduce the Abyss's erosion of Teyvat.

The remaining abyss is no problem for Teyvat's ley lines and false heavens system. I believe that even without my help, the people of Teyvat will be able to deal with the abyss on their own.

But before that, there was still one problem that kept bothering Kiana: the situation with Nata.

Since Nata was the place where Nibelungen brought the Abyss back to Teyvat, it naturally became the base of the dragons at that time.

Therefore, the forces related to Sky Island were completely eliminated, and the ley lines were shattered. The last divine messenger, or rather, the immortal spirit, sacrificed himself to reintegrate the broken ley lines into the present-day Kingdom of the Night God to replace the shattered ley lines.

However, this is also where the problem arises. Because the Kingdom of Night God has replaced the original function of the ley lines, all the information in the Nata region is carried by this Kingdom of Night God, which is independent of the ley lines.

Reshaping it would inevitably sacrifice Nata's existing civilizational memories, and could even be tantamount to abandoning the current Nata civilization.

This is something Kiana simply cannot accept, and it's no wonder that the guardian of justice told her not to interfere with Nata; it was indeed very troublesome.

It seems that we can only leave Nata Kiana alone for now. Besides, Nata is not without a backup plan. However, what Kiana did not expect was that this backup plan would be connected with the Shadow Rulers, and the Vulcan Throne on Sky Island is not the real body.

However, what is more important now is to find a way to repair the gradually breaking channel and reconnect Teyvat to the Imaginary Tree. For this reason, Kiana made a request to the Will Unity for the first time.

Now, judging by the time, the experts in this field should have been sent over by now. The next second, a terrified scream came from above Kiana.

Kiana looked up and saw a woman with long gray-blue hair falling from the sky at an alarming speed. Kiana's pupils contracted at first, and then she opened a portal in front of the woman and brought her to her side.

"Miss Shigure Kira, it's been a long time," Kiana said, holding up the back of Shigure Kira's collar with one hand.

Yes, the person sent here this time is none other than the renowned Shigure Kira, also known as the Herrscher of Death.

It's not that she's a Herrscher; after all, given her Honkai energy resistance, if she could become a Herrscher, then Cocoon would have already embraced humanity.

She is called the Herrscher of Death Voice because of her voice; as an idol, Shigure Kira does not have a beautiful voice.

Her singing can't be described as heavenly; it's more like hellish music.

Therefore, researchers from Schicksal once planned to study Shigure Kira's voice to create a sonic weapon to combat Honkai Beasts. Unfortunately, the experiment failed because Shigure Kira's singing directly damaged the recording device, causing the experiment to end before it even began.

It is said that Shigure Kira was heartbroken for several days because of this. As for why Shigure Kira was the one who came, we have to go back to the second Honkai.

I won't go into too much detail, but in short, an alien saved her when she was about to sacrifice herself.

The alien, named Black Sugar, claimed to be a member of the Hughes race responsible for infiltrating human society to find trustworthy human companions. Initially, she identified Shub Nicholas, Shigure Kira's teammate. However, after Shub's sacrifice, Black Sugar turned her attention to Shigure Kira, who had also earned her her trust. To ensure Shigure Kira's survival, Black Sugar took her to a bubble world for treatment.

In the days that followed, Shigure Kira and Kurokawa traveled between various world bubbles and eventually passed Hughes's test to become members of the Hughes clan.

This alien named Hughes was also affected by the Honkai, ultimately losing her home. Before her civilization was destroyed and fell into the Sea of ​​Quanta, Hughes transformed her home planet, which had become a World Bubble, into a Divine Key belonging to her race.

It was thanks to this Divine Key that the Hughes clan successfully survived in the Sea of ​​Quanta. Their method of survival was to use their Divine Key to deceive the Imaginary Tree by coexisting with a complete world, allowing their home to temporarily reconnect with the Imaginary Tree.

The Hughes race is currently living in symbiosis with Earth, but Shigure Kira says that this symbiosis is about to end, and perhaps after a while the Hughes race will set off again to find the next world.

Of course, this alone is not enough to satisfy Kiana's needs. The key point is that the World Bubble inside Durandal was able to remain stable and long-lasting only with the help of the Hughes clan.

The method they used was to link their race to the Imaginary Tree. Considering that Earth still needs some high-end combat power, and that the work of stabilizing the world bubble is done by the Holy Sword - Durandal, calling Durandal over is not a particularly good choice.

But Shigure Kira is different. She has long since retired and is now wholeheartedly devoted to her idol career. In fact, to overcome her tone-deafness, she often goes on adventures in various world bubbles.

Simply put, Shigure Kira is relatively free, while Kiana's older sister, Durandal, is too busy to come.

Of course, if Kiana were to ask Durandal for help, perhaps Durandal, as Kiana's older sister, would drop everything and come to Kiana's side.

Kiana understood that Durandal, as the strongest being on Earth, couldn't be allowed to leave easily. Therefore, although Kiana missed Durandal terribly, she couldn't force him to come because of her own stubbornness.

Anyway, Shigure Kira was enough. After a brief explanation of the cause and effect, Shigure Kira understood why she had been summoned.

However, even the Hughes clan had never heard of a world being forcibly extended before its destruction, and Shigure Kira could not guarantee that the Hughes clan's methods would work in this situation.

Moreover, she must inform the clan elders about this matter; only with their consent can she intervene to help Kiana.

So, at Shigure Kira's suggestion, Kiana came to the world bubble where the Hughes clan lived, which was also their Divine Key—the Outer Key Sugar Silver Moon, though their clan members preferred to call it the Candy House.

After entering the candy house, Kiana finally understood why it was called a candy house.

All around, there were piles of candies everywhere, and even the houses were made of all sorts of candies and cakes.

Before Kiana could observe for long, a gray, furry creature leaning on a cane came up to her.

According to Shigure Kira's introduction, this is the most prestigious elder in the entire Hughes clan. Through her communication with this elder, Kiana successfully obtained the relevant data and principles.

After all, although the Hughes race and humans had some friction, they had generally established a very deep friendship. In addition, Kiana secretly helped the Hughes race stabilize the world bubble after she became the God of Earth.

In return, letting Kiana know the workings of their clan's Outer Keys was a way of repaying a favor. However, Kiana's brow did not unfurrow after receiving the data.

Ultimately, the Hughes' method is based on the bubble world, but Teyvat is not a bubble world, but a complete world.

Even though this world is about to be destroyed, it is still incomparable to those world bubbles.

This undoubtedly added a lot of difficulty for Kiana, but fortunately, Alicia provided a solution.

That is, Kiana will transmit all the data and principles she has obtained to Alicia, and then Alicia will pass them on to Mebius and Mei for research. It is believed that with their research, Kiana will be able to find a perfect solution.

Kiana only remembered after Alicia reminded her that the reason Alicia did not choose to return to the real world was that the consciousness of her former civilization's companions that she had retrieved were still in the Origin Land!

This inevitably includes top scientists like Möbius and May, and even the one who has been constantly working on C without stopping, commonly known as Teacher V!

With such top-tier equipment, what else could Kiana possibly worry about? Without hesitation, she sent all the data she had just obtained to Alicia.

After receiving the message, Alicia disappeared without a trace. Kiana, who had just come to her senses, realized that Shigure Kira had left her side at some point.

Considering that there was nothing in Liyue Harbor that could threaten Shigure Kira, they simply let her roam freely.

Just then, Gan Yu arrived at Kiana's side, and under Gan Yu's guidance, Kiana once again went to Ningguang's office.

This time, Ningguang wanted Kiana to explain why she had been missing for several days and who the person who had just fallen from the sky was.

After Kiana's lengthy explanations and persuasion, Ningguang was finally convinced.

But that's not the reason Ningguang summoned Kiana this time. The main reason for summoning Kiana this time is...

Keqing is missing?

Kiana put down her teacup and looked at Ningguang with some surprise, trying to see something on Ningguang's face, but unfortunately Kiana couldn't see anything on Ningguang's face.

"Yes, on the very day you and Mr. Zhongli disappeared, Keqing went to the Abyss of the Rocks alone to investigate the strange phenomena there, and then she disappeared."

Why is it the Laminar Abyss again? Kiana thought to herself with annoyance. Ever since she came to Liyue, it seems like she has some kind of grudge against the Laminar Abyss, because every time something happens, it's in the Laminar Abyss.

"So you want to commission me to investigate this matter in the Abyss of Layered Rocks?"

"If possible, it would be best to bring Keqing back. After all, the fireworks festival is coming soon, and no matter what, she, as the person in charge, should be there at the scene."

Kiana sighed, downed her tea in one gulp, and accepted the request. Then, under Ningguang's watchful gaze, Kiana opened a portal and arrived at the entrance to the Layered Rock Abyss.

Kiana's first task was to find out information about Keqing from the workers.

"You mean Lady Keqing? I think I saw her heading towards the underground mine earlier," the worker at the entrance replied.

After obtaining useful information, Kiana set off.

However, since the Seven Stars of Liyue have sealed the entrance to the lower area, Kiana needs to find a way to break the seal first.

However, Kiana has an easier way than spending time and effort to break the seal.

After sensing the location of the underground mine, Kiana opened a portal and arrived at part of the underground mining area.

After emerging from the portal, Kiana first surveyed her surroundings and discovered that there were indeed signs of human activity, and the area looked quite new.

In other words, Keqing most likely replenished her supplies here before continuing her journey deeper. However, this was her first time inside the Layered Rock Abyss, and she never expected the underground mining area to be like this.

All around were the remnants of mined ore, with scattered pickaxes and various mine shafts scattered throughout.

It's no wonder that the Naga King Ruotu, whose consciousness was clouded by wear and tear, went berserk and attacked this place. Over the past few thousand years of excessive mining has already damaged the earth's veins in this area.

Kiana had never carefully observed the ley lines in this area before, but taking this opportunity, she discovered that the ley lines here were extremely fragile. If it weren't for the Heavenly Nail deep inside suppressing it, this place might have been a location where the abyss erupted.

Since things have come to this, let's first repair and reinforce the earth's veins here.

Yes, since returning from Sky Island, Kiana has thoroughly understood how the ley lines work. While she can't completely control them yet, she can still perform simple repairs and enhancements.

Kiana then reached out and touched the void, releasing the energy within her body. Through the connection with the illusory heavens, Kiana's energy form was recorded by the ley lines.

This undoubtedly made it easier for Kiana to repair the ley lines. In less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, Kiana completely repaired all the ley lines except for the one where the space was distorted. At the same time, through the exploration of the ley lines, Kiana also discovered Keqing's location.

Kiana was surprised to find that despite the fact that the Abyss of Laminaria had been sealed off for a long time, there were still living people besides Keqing in the underground mining area.

Moreover, those living people were none other than the Fatui, whose reputation in Liyue was already infamous.