Venti's pupils constricted, the smile on his face vanishing in an instant.
With a light flick of his fingertip, a wisp of condensed wind formed an invisible barrier precisely behind him.
A soft thud echoed as the Hydro Element struck the wind barrier, instantly shattering into fine droplets that splattered across the grass, leaving damp patches.
But before Venti could breathe a sigh of relief, he felt a violent tremor of elemental energy from behind.
He whipped around, his heart seizing.
Yunqin, who had been sleeping soundly on the grass, was now standing. Her ink-black hair floated as if weightless, its tips swirling with Hydro Element so dense it seemed almost solid, glowing with a chilling blue light.
Her Vision had completely transformed. The Geo glow was gone, replaced by a deep Hydro blue.
"It seems the old man didn't just pick up an ordinary little girl back then," Venti murmured, his gaze fixed grimly on the "Yunqin" before him.
The aura emanating from her was far beyond what any ordinary Vision holder could possess—it even carried a hint of pressure that didn't belong to mortals.
Even he, one of the Seven Archons, had to brace himself for this confrontation.
"Yunqin" didn't reply, simply raising her hand slightly.
Hydro Element rapidly gathered and condensed in her palm.
It finally solidified into a violin shimmering with a pale blue light—its body was translucent, and its strings were flowing lines of water.
With each gentle tremor, a faint sound like ocean waves could be heard.
As her fingertips lightly plucked the strings, a cold voice escaped her lips: "Gloom and Glow."
A crescent-shaped beam of Hydro Element instantly formed, shooting out with a fierce aura, its speed so great it left afterimages in the air.
Venti instinctively dodged to the side. The beam grazed his hair with a sharp shing, slicing through a massive ancient tree behind him—one so thick it would take three people to encircle it.
The cut was as smooth as if made by the sharpest divine blade, a testament to the attack's astonishing power.
Before Venti could regain his footing, "Yunqin" raised her hand again.
The violin strings vibrated violently, and a second crescent slash, charged with even more potent Hydro Element, hurtled toward him. This time, the beam was several times more powerful than the last, clearly aimed to kill.
"Is this girl serious?" Venti's heart tightened. He no longer held back, raising his hand to summon the Elegy for the End.
Anemo Element rapidly gathered on the bowstring, forming an arrow shimmering with a cyan glow. The arrowhead even hummed with a faint whisper of wind as it shot fiercely toward the Hydro Element beam.
The arrow and the beam collided violently in mid-air with a deafening BOOM, sending a thick cloud of dust and mist billowing outward.
Venti rode the wind currents, drifting backward to create several meters of distance.
As the smoke gradually cleared, he couldn't help but frown.
"Yunqin" stood unharmed in her original spot, the Hydro Element around her growing even denser. Behind her, the ethereal image of a half-moon had materialized.
The moonlight bathed her in a cold, silver radiance, adding a solemnity and detachment that didn't belong to a young girl.
Looks like I can't underestimate my opponent, Venti thought, breaking into a cold sweat.
A memory suddenly flashed through his mind—something Zhongli had once told him: Yunqin had manifested a second "form" when she was just five years old.
At the time, she had been playing at Wangshu Inn when she suddenly lost control of her Hydro Element. She not only nearly destroyed the inn but also forced Xiao, Cloud Retainer, and other Adepti to expend considerable effort to subdue her.
It wasn't that the Adepti couldn't defeat the young Yunqin; rather, they held back, unwilling to harm the child. In the end, they used gentle adeptal energy to contain her until she regained her senses on her own.
To think that after growing up, this other 'personality' inside her has become this powerful...
"Who are you, really?" Venti asked gravely, the bowstring of the Elegy already drawn taut, ready to launch the next attack at any moment. "What is your purpose? Are you after me... or Liyue?"
"You have no need to know who I am."
"As for you, Barbatos—the Anemo Archon, one of The Seven Archons of Teyvat—your power is so meager. It truly makes me question the reliability of The Seven's protection over this world."
"Yunqin" finally spoke. Her voice still carried Yunqin's timbre but had lost its usual vibrancy and liveliness, replaced by an unquestionable authority.
She slowly raised her hand, and the Hydro Element in her palm swirled into a small vortex. "Why not abdicate willingly and entrust your nation to my care? Perhaps then, that country might finally get back on the 'right track.' What do you say?"
Hearing this, Venti couldn't help but laugh.
"You're merely borrowing the body of a seventeen-year-old girl, too afraid to even reveal your own identity, yet you dream of taking over a nation ruled by an Archon for millennia? Isn't that a bit delusional?"
"Dream? Reality?"
"Yunqin" tilted her head slightly, her eyes devoid of any warmth, as if she were looking at an ignorant child.
"What's the difference between the two? The people of this world all live in self-deceiving dreams, abandoning struggle for the sake of so-called 'peace.' Foolish and ignorant."
"And I, as the one who will take control, will shatter this false balance and make the world kneel to welcome His return!"
As her voice fell, the half-moon behind her suddenly shattered, transforming into countless crystalline Hydro shards that rained down on Venti from all directions like a torrential storm.
At the same time, she drew her bow across the violin once more, and a melody—elegant yet intensely bewitching—flowed through the air.
Even Venti found himself momentarily dazed. Visions of Mondstadt's past and the blurred faces of old friends flickered before his eyes...
The familiar scenes nearly pulled him into his memories, making him forget the immediate danger.
This is bad! It's an illusion! Venti snapped back to his senses, and a powerful wind field instantly erupted from his position.
The wind field acted as an invisible barrier, deflecting all the incoming Hydro shards and instantly scattering them into fine droplets of water.
Just as "Yunqin" prepared to launch her next attack, the elemental fluctuations around her began to flicker erratically. Her face paled visibly, and a flash of pain crossed her eyes.
Suddenly, a terrifying pressure descended.
Venti keenly sensed that the deeply hidden, vast aura behind "Yunqin"—an aura as immense as the deep sea—was being suppressed.
"Yunqin" clutched her head in pain, her body trembling slightly. Cracks began to appear on her violin.
She defiantly raised her head, her icy gaze fixed on the sky. Through the moonlight, her eyes reflected the distant lights of Liyue Harbor.
"Soon... soon all of this will end... When we meet again... we will meet again!"
As her voice faded, her body went limp.
The Vision reverted to Geo, the Hydro energy around her instantly dissipated, and the phantom moon behind her shattered completely.
Yunqin collapsed forward as if all her strength had vanished.
Venti quickly stepped forward and caught her, steadying her gently. He carefully checked her breathing—it was stable. She had simply fallen into a deep sleep, with no danger to her life.
Looking down at the girl in his arms, Venti saw her brows furrowed slightly, as if she were having an unpleasant dream. Her lips twitched into an unconscious pout as she muttered softly, "Grilled fish... I haven't finished my grilled fish... Don't take it..."
This pitiful, food-obsessed expression made her seem like a completely different person from the cold, imposing "Yunqin" who had just tried to defy the gods.
Venti shook his head, a mix of exasperation and amusement on his face. He carefully made a small nest of dry grass and gently laid her down on the soft ground.
"Looks like I need to have a serious talk with the old man about this," Venti sighed helplessly, gazing at Yunqin's sleeping form.
With that, he dissolved into a gust of wind and vanished.