"I…"
"My life now can hardly be called a good one."
Beisht's voice echoed through the sea, filled with sorrow.
Hearing the desolation in her tone, Qiu Nian felt somewhat uneasy.
Back in ancient times, there had been countless gods.
Yet it seemed that Osial was the only one who had a wife.
On the surface, Osial had lost.
But in truth—
He might have been the greatest winner of them all.
"You could still live well."
"You simply chose not to."
Qiu Nian sighed softly as he spoke.
His meaning was simple.
Beisht could assume human form.
She could walk upon the lands of Teyvat and see the world as it was now.
"Without him… what meaning would such a life have?"
"I would rather remain in this deep sea forever."
"At least here… he is still here."
"And even in my dreams, he is still beside me."
Beisht's voice trembled with grief.
"May I ask…"
"Why you came here?"
She looked at Qiu Nian, her voice shaking slightly.
She feared never seeing Osial again.
And she feared even more—
That Osial might never see her again.
"It's nothing special."
"I simply came to talk."
"I hold no hatred toward you or Osial."
"Think of it as a visit between old acquaintances."
Qiu Nian shook his head.
"Old acquaintances…"
"Even in those days, I had only heard of you."
"And now, after all this time… we can be called friends?"
Beisht sounded puzzled.
"To meet someone who existed in that distant age after so many years…"
"Isn't that, in its own way, a kind of friendship?"
Qiu Nian replied with a faint smile.
"Talking…"
"It has been ages since I last spoke with anyone."
"To converse face to face like this…"
"It feels strangely unfamiliar."
Beisht said with quiet emotion.
"If this is a conversation… may I ask anything?"
"Ask anything you wish."
Qiu Nian nodded.
"You are very different from the person I remember…"
"…May I ask why, during the early days of the Archon War, you…"
Beisht trailed off as memories flooded her mind.
Three thousand five hundred years ago.
At some unknown time, in some unknown place—
A god appeared.
A god of terrifying power.
A mad god.
He had no people.
And he slaughtered gods without reason or purpose.
Gentle and benevolent gods.
Cruel and tyrannical gods.
He destroyed them all alike.
Yet strangely—
He held no hostility toward any being that was not a god.
Servants.
Creatures.
Mortals.
None of them were targets of his wrath.
His bloody path ignited at the far edges of Teyvat.
Like ripples of death spreading outward.
Wherever his footsteps reached—
No god survived.
Nearly five hundred years passed.
After slaughtering roughly half of the gods that existed in the world—
That mad god finally arrived in what was then the small territory of Liyue.
His next target—
Was Morax, the God of Geo.
But Morax was clearly different from the gods he had destroyed before.
The two clashed in a battle that shook heaven and earth.
Even Beisht did not know how that battle ended.
She only knew that afterward—
The mad god vanished.
And Morax remained.
Time passed slowly.
During their long conversation, Qiu Nian answered many of Beisht's questions.
Including the one she most wanted to know—
Why he had slaughtered so many gods.
When she learned the truth, Beisht was utterly shocked.
What she heard nearly shattered her entire understanding of the world.
Yet at the same time—
She felt deep admiration for Qiu Nian.
And admiration for the fallen gods as well.
For a brief moment, she even felt that compared to what Qiu Nian had done…
Her hatred toward Liyue seemed almost trivial.
But only for a moment.
Because the two things could never truly be compared.
Qiu Nian also asked Beisht whether she still hated Liyue.
After hearing her answer—
He sighed.
Soon afterward, Qiu Nian surfaced from the sea and returned to the highest point of Guyun Stone Forest.
The sun was already nearing the horizon.
Orange mist spread across the ocean.
The sky burned with shades of red and gold.
Clouds glowed like flames.
Several seabirds glided across the sky.
Under the sunset's light, the sea shimmered with countless golden ripples.
The scenery was breathtaking.
Qiu Nian paused to take it in.
His mind replayed Beisht's final words to him.
She had only said one sentence.
"If I hunted the humans of Liyue as food… would Liyue hate me?"
This kind of hatred…
Could never truly be resolved.
Osial and Beisht ruled the ocean creatures of the Sea of Clouds.
Yet the people of ancient Liyue had long relied on fishing to survive.
To Osial and Beisht—
That was the slaughter of their own people.
Which was why Osial often dragged fishing vessels beneath the waves.
And that was before Morax sealed him beneath the sea for thousands of years.
How could Beisht not hate Liyue?
Still—
Qiu Nian believed there might be a solution.
But that would require both Morax and Osial to agree.
If either of them refused—
The conflict would remain unresolved.
Speaking with Morax would be easy enough.
But Osial…
He would have to wait until the moment when Osial briefly regained consciousness after breaking free again.
It wasn't that Qiu Nian wanted to act as a mediator.
He simply felt that a hatred lasting thousands of years…
Had gone on long enough.
Beisht had mentioned that this all began during the early stage of the Archon War three thousand five hundred years ago.
But according to the common understanding—
The Archon War was said to have begun three thousand years ago.
Which meant…
His actions had pushed the war forward by five hundred years.
No wonder Morax had referred to it as the early stage of the Archon War.
That must have been the explanation scholars of Teyvat had settled upon.
Morax had even said:
"We have both ended an era."
So that was it.
Qiu Nian himself had created the term "early Archon War."
And he had also been the one to end it.
The Archon War ended two thousand years ago.
It began three thousand five hundred years ago.
Which meant—
The early stage lasted five hundred years.
The middle stage lasted five hundred years.
And the late stage lasted five hundred years.
The entire Archon War spanned fifteen hundred years.
The first five hundred years—
Were caused by him.
The following thousand years—
Were caused by the heavens.
"Well… that's something."
Qiu Nian shook his head with a bitter smile.
Still—
Only by completely resolving that thing would the deaths of the gods truly have meaning.
And that…
Was the reason he had returned.
The road ahead was long.
Qiu Nian gazed toward the setting sun and slowly closed his eyes.
A long time later—
He appeared once more in a deserted place outside Liyue Harbor.